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China further opens the door of private equity to the foreign investors by launching the pilot program of foreign private equity (PE) investment.
On January 11, Shanghai Municipal Financial Department officially issued the “Implementation of Launching Pilot Program of Foreign Investment in Private Equity”.
The experts point out that this is a tiny but important attempt for China to open capital project, marking the establishment of a new channel for the qualified foreign limited investors (QFLP) to invest in China’s domestic companies.
There are two highlights of this new policy: firstly, foreign PE investors can conduct the exchange settlement before investing, paving a way for them to directly invest in China. Secondly, the quota is capped at 5%, which can extend the scope of foreign PE investment.
Attempt of Foreign PE Investors
Different parties never stop exploring the way of helping/allowing foreign PE investors establish RMB funds in China.
Prior to this pilot program, foreign RMB funds mainly adopt the patterns of Sino-foreign joint equity and Sino-foreign cooperation.
However, these two patterns are haunted by a lot of inconveniences. Therefore, the pilot program is highly praised by the experts.
They think that launching this pilot program on one hand can attract the high-quality foreign investment institutions, as well as good institutional investors’ experience. On the other hand, the domestic assets distribution can be optimized, through which a large amount of capital can be put into the efficient enterprises. This is good for capital allocation.
Xu Yi, vice president of Gobi Partners, says that no special department casts management over the RMB funds, which are developing very fast. The new rule puts the joint equity into normal management, referring to an official recognition of the joint equity. This is good for the industrial development.
Presently, a lot of institutions in China are engaged in raising capital for the RMB funds. China Venture Group’s research director Li Weidong says that the newly issued rules have clear definitions of the rights and obligations, which is good for the foreign PE investors can raise funds in a legal method.
A government official from Shanghai expresses his hope of attracting high-quality foreign capital with this pilot program to boost the development of RMB equity funds. Meanwhile, this program can make foreign investment focus on emerging strategic industry and is good for boosting economic transformation and structure change.
According to the report, the new rule about allowing QFLP to invest in PE will be carried out in Beijing and Shanghai as pilot programs. The administration departments in these two cities can review the QFLP’s conditions and give them certain quotas so they can settle exchanges directly. This pattern reduces the original steps of submitting application to the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce and waiting for their approval. Presently, Shanghai and Beijing obtain the total quota for exchange settlement of 3 billion US dollars.
Two Key Breakthroughs
The new rule has two important breakthroughs: firstly, allowing QFLP to invest in PE opens the door of free exchange settlement. Secondly, the general partner’s degree of participation is capped at 5%, which can extend the category of foreign investment without changing the stipulations about PE investment companies’ character. This allows foreign PE investors to get into a broader space. Xu Yi says that Sino-foreign joint equity and Sino-foreign cooperative equity all belong to joint equity. The investors hope to inject their investment soon after signing the contract, but the original rule stopped them from doing this, which affected the investment process. The new rule accelerates the process and improves the convenience and efficiency of the investment.
“Another highlight is the proportion of general partner’s investment which is set at 5%,” says Xu Yi. According to the original rule, a RMB fund whose 1% stakes are taken by foreign investors is considered as foreign-invested fund and is limited in investment domains. Now the proportion is improved to 5%, which expands the investment scope. Li Weidong points out that the new rule enables Carlyle, Sequoia Capital and the other foreign investment institutions to enjoy the treatment of RMB funds when raising capital in RMB.
Broader Scope Is Recommended
This program allowing QFLP to invest in PE gives certain latitude for foreign investors in Shanghai. Foreign PE investors consist of overseas sovereign funds, pension funds, donation funds, charitable funds, funds of fund, insurance companies, banks, securities companies and so on.
Xu Yi points out that the new rule puts forward a high requirement for the QFLP. In addition, a lot of documents are needed, such as the financial report.
In Xu Yi’s opinion, the QFLP includes many rich foreign families who consider their financial reports as confidential. Therefore, Xu Yi suggests a broader scope for QFLP and an easier environment for investors.
Some people worry that the new rule, which encourages foreign investors to invest in PE, will be followed by hot money.
Li Weidong points out that it is not necessary to worry about it. The rule has restricted both flow channels and domains of foreign investment. In addition, the introduction of fund custodian bank also secures the PE industry in China.
In his opinion, the new rule could attract high-quality and experienced foreign capital and help the development of industry.
On January 11, Shanghai Municipal Financial Department officially issued the “Implementation of Launching Pilot Program of Foreign Investment in Private Equity”.
The experts point out that this is a tiny but important attempt for China to open capital project, marking the establishment of a new channel for the qualified foreign limited investors (QFLP) to invest in China’s domestic companies.
There are two highlights of this new policy: firstly, foreign PE investors can conduct the exchange settlement before investing, paving a way for them to directly invest in China. Secondly, the quota is capped at 5%, which can extend the scope of foreign PE investment.
Attempt of Foreign PE Investors
Different parties never stop exploring the way of helping/allowing foreign PE investors establish RMB funds in China.
Prior to this pilot program, foreign RMB funds mainly adopt the patterns of Sino-foreign joint equity and Sino-foreign cooperation.
However, these two patterns are haunted by a lot of inconveniences. Therefore, the pilot program is highly praised by the experts.
They think that launching this pilot program on one hand can attract the high-quality foreign investment institutions, as well as good institutional investors’ experience. On the other hand, the domestic assets distribution can be optimized, through which a large amount of capital can be put into the efficient enterprises. This is good for capital allocation.
Xu Yi, vice president of Gobi Partners, says that no special department casts management over the RMB funds, which are developing very fast. The new rule puts the joint equity into normal management, referring to an official recognition of the joint equity. This is good for the industrial development.
Presently, a lot of institutions in China are engaged in raising capital for the RMB funds. China Venture Group’s research director Li Weidong says that the newly issued rules have clear definitions of the rights and obligations, which is good for the foreign PE investors can raise funds in a legal method.
A government official from Shanghai expresses his hope of attracting high-quality foreign capital with this pilot program to boost the development of RMB equity funds. Meanwhile, this program can make foreign investment focus on emerging strategic industry and is good for boosting economic transformation and structure change.
According to the report, the new rule about allowing QFLP to invest in PE will be carried out in Beijing and Shanghai as pilot programs. The administration departments in these two cities can review the QFLP’s conditions and give them certain quotas so they can settle exchanges directly. This pattern reduces the original steps of submitting application to the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce and waiting for their approval. Presently, Shanghai and Beijing obtain the total quota for exchange settlement of 3 billion US dollars.
Two Key Breakthroughs
The new rule has two important breakthroughs: firstly, allowing QFLP to invest in PE opens the door of free exchange settlement. Secondly, the general partner’s degree of participation is capped at 5%, which can extend the category of foreign investment without changing the stipulations about PE investment companies’ character. This allows foreign PE investors to get into a broader space. Xu Yi says that Sino-foreign joint equity and Sino-foreign cooperative equity all belong to joint equity. The investors hope to inject their investment soon after signing the contract, but the original rule stopped them from doing this, which affected the investment process. The new rule accelerates the process and improves the convenience and efficiency of the investment.
“Another highlight is the proportion of general partner’s investment which is set at 5%,” says Xu Yi. According to the original rule, a RMB fund whose 1% stakes are taken by foreign investors is considered as foreign-invested fund and is limited in investment domains. Now the proportion is improved to 5%, which expands the investment scope. Li Weidong points out that the new rule enables Carlyle, Sequoia Capital and the other foreign investment institutions to enjoy the treatment of RMB funds when raising capital in RMB.
Broader Scope Is Recommended
This program allowing QFLP to invest in PE gives certain latitude for foreign investors in Shanghai. Foreign PE investors consist of overseas sovereign funds, pension funds, donation funds, charitable funds, funds of fund, insurance companies, banks, securities companies and so on.
Xu Yi points out that the new rule puts forward a high requirement for the QFLP. In addition, a lot of documents are needed, such as the financial report.
In Xu Yi’s opinion, the QFLP includes many rich foreign families who consider their financial reports as confidential. Therefore, Xu Yi suggests a broader scope for QFLP and an easier environment for investors.
Some people worry that the new rule, which encourages foreign investors to invest in PE, will be followed by hot money.
Li Weidong points out that it is not necessary to worry about it. The rule has restricted both flow channels and domains of foreign investment. In addition, the introduction of fund custodian bank also secures the PE industry in China.
In his opinion, the new rule could attract high-quality and experienced foreign capital and help the development of industry.