London Asia Leaps the Great Wall for Investment Opportunities

Filed in archive Private Equity on March 2, 2006

Although there has been a paucity of recent deals from the European investment community into China, London Asia Capital's co-founders, Victor Ng and Simon Littlefield have recently entered into business tie-ups with several PRC partners, Hangzhou Hi-Tech VC and Heilongjiang HIT VC to gain access to Chinese corporate clients and opportunities for investment and direct acquisitions.

In an exclusive interview with CVN Victor Ng generously provided insightful comments on London Asia's investment strategy in China:

CVN: I am seeking a few comments about the identification and selection process of your new PRC investment partners. How did you select them?

VN: These two new tie-ups (Hangzhou Hi-Tech VC and Heilongjiang HIT VC) are an integral part of our strategy to deepen and widen our footprint in china taking us from the richest province to one of the relatively poor but fast emerging northeast region.

CVN: Describe your fund's objectives?

VN: We are a late-stage private equity and fund management house with a strong emphasis and infrastructure in exit management and strategies. In this respect, we complement our VC partners who invest in early stage companies.
We could either take over their investments or provide expansion capital to take the respective investee companies to step up for an early exit in London's AIM or OFEX or any of the major capital markets such as Singapore.

VN: In other words, we cross-leverage on our respective strengths, investment management and exit strategies. This way, we provide an exit for our partners'
investments. Our model is simple: value discovery and risk management with
a clear and simple end game: exit via an appropriate capital market either via IPO, M&A, or trade sale.

CVN: There has not been much activity from anyone from the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association partnering up with China's domestic VCs. Do you consider yourself leading a new charge of EC VC investments into Chinese tech companies?

VN: We love to go to places where visibility, in terms of late-stage private equity opportunities are poo.Yes, we love unchartered playgrounds.

CVN: What would you advise other EC investors (or foreign VCs
about the arduous selection process in finding the right local partner?

VN: We are all still learning everyday. There's no one correct strategy suffice to say that one has to be prepared to invest more than money! It's all about time, patience, people, and clear and open relationships.