The Hina Group, an investment banking and private equity firm, launched only two years ago is capitalizing on the increased cross-border opportunities between Silicon Valley and China.

According to managing director, 35-year old Ken Tsang from the firm's Palo Alto office in California, "our company has done remarkably well and this attributed to our overall team which knows China's market very well."

It helps that the charismatic Dr. Hong Chen, the PhD-entrepreneur founder of Internet roaming company Gric Communications (Nasdaq), is a pivotal person behind the Hina Group and was instrumental in recruiting Tsang, a former vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston in the Technology Group and others to participate in the company's rapid rise as a key Silicon Valley-China deal maker. Three years ago, Chen also founded the quanxi-laden Hua Yuan Science & Technology Association to build bridges between Chinese-born technology leaders living in the U.S. and their counterparts at home.

Hina Capital Partners focuses on investing in opportunities in Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) in China and the United States and with offices also in Beijing and Shanghai, the company has been working over time to keep pace with the number of quality deal transactions coming across their transom.

They have also recently acted as the investment banker in arranging investment capital from Microsoft, and International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the public (Hong Kong Exchange) IT company, Chinasoft International Limited. Microsoft and IFC invested US$20 million and US$ 15 million respectively in Chinasoft International.

" Chinasoft International is the leading IT outsourcing service provider in the PRC, and so was a natural strategic partner for Microsoft and also fit IFC's much broader investment mandate," added Tsang in a telephone interview.

The Hina Group also acted as exclusive financial advisor to
NeoPhotonics Corporation of San Jose in the successful completion of their merger with Photon Technology Co., Ltd. of Shenzhen. The new NeoPhotonics expects revenues to exceed $50M in 2005, has more than 1200 employees, primarily in China and the U.S., and has more than 100 customers, many of which are tier one network equipment suppliers.

Tsang expects to see more of these types of mergers as U.S. tech companies interested in China's market seek strategic mergers to achieve scale in the dynamic marketplace.