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Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17 FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK Crawl to the bourse Regulatory bureaucracy is restraining India’s private equity-backed IPOs Page 7 Delivery disruption Start-ups redefine India’s grocery sector Page 10 Under the influence PE bets on rise of China designated drivers Page 12 Unison’s Tatsuo Kawasaki on reform in Japan Page 15 INDUSTRY Q&A Investors re-up in Canva’s design proposition Page 12 CITIC Capital plots China expansion for Mark Styler Page 13 DEAL OF THE WEEK Tech dominates China private equity deal flow Page 3 Accel, Actis, Anthem, Babson, CITIC PE, CNEI, CRCI, Crescent, GGV, JD Capital, Lightspeed, Nexus, Quadrant, SAIF, Spring, Tiger Global Page 4 EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT NEWS

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Page 1: Crawl to the bourse - avcj.com · Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17 FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK Crawl to the bourse Regulatory bureaucracy is

Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17

FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK

Crawl to the bourseRegulatory bureaucracy is restraining India’s private equity-backed IPOs Page 7

Delivery disruptionStart-ups redefine India’s grocery sector Page 10

Under the influencePE bets on rise of China designated drivers Page 12

Unison’s Tatsuo Kawasaki on reform in Japan

Page 15

INDUSTRY Q&A

Investors re-up in Canva’s design proposition

Page 12

CITIC Capital plots China expansion for Mark Styler

Page 13

DEAL OF THE WEEK

Tech dominates China private equity deal flow

Page 3

Accel, Actis, Anthem, Babson, CITIC PE, CNEI, CRCI, Crescent, GGV, JD Capital, Lightspeed, Nexus, Quadrant, SAIF, Spring, Tiger Global

Page 4

EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT

NEWS

Page 2: Crawl to the bourse - avcj.com · Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17 FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK Crawl to the bourse Regulatory bureaucracy is

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE, LOCAL OPPORTUNITY avcjusa.com

Asia’s place in a global private equity portfolioJoin the discussion which brings Asia and North America’s private equity professionals together for this rare meeting and hear what makes Asia so appealing for foreign investors today.

10th Annual Private Equity & Venture Forum

Forum key statistics:

Media Partner

Co-Sponsors

Highlights: Hear from industry experts on opportunities across the region

Understand the best way access top tier managers in the region?

Discover which sectors are really flourishing and providing stellar returns

Develop strategies to mitigate currency risks in Asia?

Learn from your peers how they have achieved successful returns from their Asian portfolios

P M S 2 9 3

10CountriesRepresented

32Speakers

160Participants

7Asia-focusedSessions

46%Limited Partners

26%General Partners

LPsGPs

Join your peers#avcjusa

Book by 22nd May 2015 and SAVE US$200ONLINE: avcjusa.com EMAIL: [email protected] PHONE: +852 3411 4836

Register now and network with America’s largest institutional investors looking to expand their portfolios and contacts within Asia. The brochure is now available, visit avcjusa.com for full details on the conference agenda and how to register.

Page 3: Crawl to the bourse - avcj.com · Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17 FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK Crawl to the bourse Regulatory bureaucracy is

Number 17 | Volume 28 | May 12 2015 | avcj.com 3

EDITOR’S [email protected]

IT IS STILL ONLY MAY BUT ASIA HAS seen 28 deals in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) space of $100 million or more. This compares to 31 in 2014 and an average of approximately 14 for the eight years before that.

Until 2014, China had seen no more than five rounds in excess of $100 million in any one year, according to AVCJ Research. In 2014 there were 17, and there have been 19 so far this year.

Last year, Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi and Indian online marketplace Flipkart each raised over $1 billion from investors. The biggest deal from the first five months of 2015 is listings and group buying platform Dianping, which received $850 million from Tencent Holdings, FountainVest Partners, Temasek Holdings, Xiaomi, Wanda Group and Fosun Group.

While the rankings are dominated by China and India, they are not minority growth deals across the board. KKR, for example, has participated in a $170 million round for China-based used car trading platform Uxin, but also agreed a buyout of Korea’s Ticket Monster. Meanwhile, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) provided $199.5 million in PIPE funding to Hong Kong Broadband.

These anomalies have contributed to a situation in which the TMT share of overall Asia private equity deal flow stands at a record 28%, up from 16% for 2014 as a whole, but they are not the driving force. That is China. More money has gone into TMT deals since the start of the year than into any other sector – $4.58 billion to $4.52 billion. This has never come anywhere close to happening before; last year’s total was 81% non-TMT and that was a record low.

Slower general deal activity in China is a

contributing factor, which is blamed by many on the strong public market valuations filtering through to the private markets. But investors are still willing to do business in the TMT space, in some cases at valuations in excess of $1 billion.

Needless to say, the participants in these bumper rounds are not just traditional VCs. Close to 50 different disclosed investors feature in the China deals of $100 million or more. Eight are strategic players; about a dozen are private equity, although some are regular tech investors; and there is a scattering of sovereign wealth or government-linked funds and hedge funds.

This is not a new trend but it now appears to be on steroids as investors of all stripes try and share in the mobile internet growth story. Depending on whom you ask, we are now witnessing excesses akin to the dotcom bubble era or a rationale response to an opportunity that is bigger and more sustainable than 15 years ago.

There is an expectation angle. A hedge fund dipping into the private markets for a pre-IPO round might be satisfied with a 15-20% gain on exit. The risk is higher for a private equity firm entering a Series C round for a start-up that has yet to establish itself as the long-term winner in a changing market, and where an exit – whether IPO or trade sale – may be some years off.

Investors are writing bigger checks and playing for higher stakes; it can’t work out well for everyone.

Tim BurroughsManaging EditorAsian Venture Capital Journal

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The Publisher reserves all rights herein. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted only with the written consent of

AVCJ Group Limited. ISSN 1817-1648 Copyright © 2015

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TMT share of China PE deal �ow

Source: AVCJ Research

%

100

80

60

40

20

02006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

YTD China TMT China other

Registration enquiries: Davy Wong T: +852 3411 4844 E: [email protected]

Enquiry

avcjusa.com

Co-Sponsors

P M S 2 9 3

Join your peers#avcjusa

Sponsorship enquiries: Darryl Mag T: +852 3411 4919E: [email protected]

Book by 22 MAY 2015 and SAVE US$200

NETWORKINGEnjoy exclusive networking opportunities with key participants in the Asian private equity community (40 GPs, 80 LPs, 160 attendees). Discuss and learn why Asia is still a driving force in the private equity ecosystem.

ASIADiscuss and learn why Asia still matters in private equity

EXPERTSHear from 32 expert speakers who are driving activity in private equity investment

MARKET INSIGHTReview top performing investment markets and industries as well as emerging trends for the future

COMMUNITYMake use of the breadth of experience from 160 attendees including the most promising GPs, LPs, and service providers to review your investor relations effectiveness and benchmark your firm against industry leaders

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE, LOCAL OPPORTUNITY avcjusa.com

10th Annual Private Equity & Venture Forum

USA 2015

Featuring:10CountriesRepresented

32Speakers

160Participants

7Asia-focusedSessions

46%Limited Partners

26%General Partners

LPsGPs

9 July • Harvard Club of New York City

Asia’s place in the global private equity portfolio

BROCHURE NOW

AVAILABLE, download at

avcjusa.com

USA 2015 9 July • Harvard Club of New York City

avcjusa.com

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE, LOCAL OPPORTUNITY avcjusa.com

Asia’s place in a global private equity portfolioJoin the discussion which brings Asia and North America’s private equity professionals together for this rare meeting and hear what makes Asia so appealing for foreign investors today.

10th Annual Private Equity & Venture Forum

Forum key statistics:

Media Partner

Co-Sponsors

Highlights: Hear from industry experts on opportunities across the region

Understand the best way access top tier managers in the region?

Discover which sectors are really flourishing and providing stellar returns

Develop strategies to mitigate currency risks in Asia?

Learn from your peers how they have achieved successful returns from their Asian portfolios

P M S 2 9 3

10CountriesRepresented

32Speakers

160Participants

7Asia-focusedSessions

46%Limited Partners

26%General Partners

LPsGPs

Join your peers#avcjusa

Book by 22nd May 2015 and SAVE US$200ONLINE: avcjusa.com EMAIL: [email protected] PHONE: +852 3411 4836

Register now and network with America’s largest institutional investors looking to expand their portfolios and contacts within Asia. The brochure is now available, visit avcjusa.com for full details on the conference agenda and how to register.

Page 4: Crawl to the bourse - avcj.com · Asia’s Private Equity News Source avcj.com May 12 2015 Volume 28 Number 17 FOCUS DEAL OF THE WEEK Crawl to the bourse Regulatory bureaucracy is

avcj.com | May 12 2015 | Volume 28 | Number 174

ASIA PACIFIC

Babson closes Asia mezzanine fund at $177mBabson Capital Management has reached a final close of $177.2 million on its latest Asia-focused mezzanine fund. Gateway Mezzanine Partners II was launched in late 2013 with a target of A$200 million (then $176.1 million). It will focus providing mezzanine financing for PE-sponsored transactions involving middle market companies.

AUSTRALASIA

Quadrant exits New Zealand lender HeartlandQuadrant Private Equity has exited Heartland New Zealand, selling its 8.75% stake in the lender for NZ$53.5 million ($40.1 million) through a block trade. The PE firm’s interest in Heartland came via Seniors Money International (SMI). It sold SMI’s New Zealand and Australia home equity release mortgage assets to Heartland for NZ$87 million in 2014 in a cash-plus-shares deal.

Portfolio disclosure rule pushed back againThe Australian government has once again deferred introduction of portfolio holdings disclosure legislation that could require domestic LPs to reveal the identity and investments of each PE and VC fund they back. The new system is now into its third 12-month delay and will come into effect on July 1, 2016.

Morning Crest leads $5.1 round for AirtaskerChina’s Morning Crest Capital has led a A$6.5 million ($5.1 million) investment in Australian local services marketplace Airtasker. Other investors taking part in the round include Australia’s Exto Partners, Carthona Capital, Black Sheep Capital, and the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA).

GREATER CHINA

Tuniu gets $500m from JD.com, PE investorsTuniu, a US-listed Chinese online package tour provider, will raise $500 million through a private placement to e-commerce giant JD.com and

several of its PE backers. JD will buy $350 million worth of Class A ordinary shares and contribute a further $100 million in resources, while Hony Capital, DCM, Temasek Holdings, Sequoia Capital and travel booking site Ctrip will put in $150 million between them.

CRCI leads $100m round for car-sharing app China Renaissance Capital Investments (CRCI) has led a $100 million Series C round for Dida Pinche, a Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) car-sharing app. TrustBridge Partners, IDG Capital Partners and US-listed automotive website Bitauto also took part. The company claims this is the largest round ever

raised by a Chinese car-pooling app.

Chinese drone maker gets $75m from AccelAccel Partners has provided $75 million in funding to DJI, a China-based drone manufacturer. The investment is said to value the company at $8 billion. Set up in 2006 and headquartered in Shenzhen, DJI develops aerial robotics technology for commercial and recreational use. It previously received funding from Sequoia Capital.

MBK invests in logistics player Apex North Asia-focused buyout firm MBK Partners has invested in Apex International Corporation, a China-based logistics company with a strong presence in freight forwarding. Apex has 14 branches in China and seven in the US. It is said to dominates the major China to US routes for air freight forwarding and have significant market shares for routes to other parts of the world.

Crescent leads $50m round for parenting siteCrescent HydePark - a unit of Crescent Group - has led a $50 million Series B round of funding for Guo.com, a Chinese online retail platform for maternity and baby products. Vipshop, a local online discount retailer, also participated in the round.

GGV, Morningside back real estate site AiwujiwuGGV Capital and Morningside Technologies have led a $120 million Series D round for Aiwujiwu, a Chinese rental and second-home listings portal. Existing investors Shunwei Capital Partners and Banyan Capital also participated. The latest round values the start-up at $1 billion.

China’s JD launches P2P lending platformChinese private equity firm JD Capital has invested RMB2 billion ($322 million) to launch an online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform. The platform, Jiuxin Finance, is wholly-owned by JD. The GP claims to be the first private equity firm in China to make such a move.

Spring Capital’s Vanzo merges with KaileSpring Capital has merged mobile handset

CITIC PE raises $1.3b for second US dollar fundCITIC Private Equity has closed it second US dollar-denominated China fund with just under $1.3 billion in commitments. The vehicle is the successor to CPE China Fund, which closed in April 2011 at $990 million. CITIC PE was set up in 2008 by Lefei Liu, whose father, Yunshan Liu, is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body.

The private equity firm also operates three renminbi funds, according to its website: two general private equity vehicles, one of which closed at RMB9.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in 2010, and another that is targeting RMB10 billion; and a mezzanine vehicle with a target of RMB5 billion.

AVCJ Research’s records indicate that the second renminbi fund closed at RMB11.9 billion in October 2012. Its LPs include China Life Asset Management and the National Council for Social Security Fund.

Recent transactions involving CITIC PE include the acquisition of a majority stake in Hong Kong-listed Jin Cai Holding alongside Beijing Enterprises Water Group for HK$3.7 billion ($477 million). It also participated in a $100 million round for Humin, a B2B and B2C e-commerce platform, and a $75 million round for cancer drug developer BeiGene.

NEWS

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Number 17 | Volume 28 | May 12 2015 | avcj.com 5

manufacturer Vanzo Communication Technology with Shanghai-listed Hubei Kaile Science and Technology. This represents a liquidity event for the China-focused investor. It was announced last September that Hubei Kaile would acquire a 100% interest in Shanghai-based Vanzo for RMB860 million ($140 million) in cash and shares.

SAIF leads $16m round for real estate site JiwuSAIF Partners China has led a RMB100 million ($16 million) Series A round of funding for Jiwu.com, a Shenzhen-based real estate listings portal. As part of the round, Thaihot Group – a listed Chinese property developer – invested $5 million for a 6.67% stake.

CNEI invests $15m in private school operatorChina New Enterprise Investment (CNEI) has led a $15 million round of funding for Guanghua Education Group, a China-based private school operator. Founded in 2009, the company offers international-oriented curricula and other educational services to Chinese students who want to pursue college education overseas.

NORTH ASIA

PE to exit as Japan’s Recruit buys WahandaJapan’s Recruit Holdings has acquired UK-based Hotspring Ventures, the company behind online hair and beauty marketplace Wahanda, for JPY4.5 billion ($37.6 million). This provides an exit for VC backers Ambient Sound Investment, Fidelity Growth Partners and Lepe Partners.

SOUTH ASIA

Lightspeed to raise India venture fundUS-based Lightspeed Venture Partners is looking to raise $115 million for its first India-focused fund. The vehicle was registered with regulators last week. Previous India investments by Lightspeed have been made via its global fund. The firm reached a final close on its 10th flagship fund in March of last year, raising $950 million.

India’s Delhivery gets $85m Series D roundTiger Global has led a Series D round for

Indian e-commerce logistics service Delhivery that netted the company $85 million. Existing investors Multiples Alternative Asset Management, Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet also participated.

VC investors back online education start-upsTwo Indian online education start-ups have received venture capital funding. Vedantu, which provides one-on-one online tutoring and collaboration, raised $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. Toppr, which focuses specifically on preparation for university entrance exams, particularly engineering and medical schools, got $10 million from Fidelity Growth Partners.

Housing.com sees boardroom spat resolvedRahul Yadav, the CEO of Indian property listing platform Housing.com has withdrawn his resignation from the start-up and issued an apology to its VC investors after a public spat. Yadav, 26, submitted his resignation last week. In a leaked letter he said the board was “intellectually incapable.” However, following a meeting with the board he backtracked and has been re-instated as CEO.

Actis agrees exit from India’s Phoenix LampsActis has agreed to exit its stake in Indian automotive lighting manufacturer Phoenix Lamps to cable maker Suprajit Engineering. The proposed sale would leave Suprajit with at least 51% and up to 62% of Phoenix. The latter would represent the entire stake held by Actis, and will depend on the acceptance level of Phoenix’s shares in the mandatory open offer.

PE-backed Numero Uno files for India IPOIndian apparel retailer Numero Uno Clothing has filed for an IPO, hoping to raise INR650 million ($10 million) and provide a partial exit for AA Indian Development Capital Advisors. The firm will offer 6.8 million shares owned by AA and 1.6 million from the promoter. An undisclosed amount of new shares will also be issued.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Thailand payment player gets Series A roundIndonesian venture capital fund SMDV has a $2.6 million Series A round for Thailand-based payment solutions start-up Omise. East Ventures, Thai mobile network operator True, and 500 Tuktuks - 500Startups’ Thailand satellite fund - also took part.

Anthem backs Myanmar mobile data platformMyanmar-focused investor Anthem Asia has provided funding to Xavey, a local mobile data collection platform that works with groups conducting research and surveys. In a country where raw data is often hard to collect or out of date, Xavey tracks local consumers’ attitudes, habits and spending patterns through field surveys using mobile devices.

Nexus raises $434m for two India VC fundsNexus Venture Partners has closed its fourth India venture capital fund at $304 million and raised a further $130 million for a top-up fund focusing on later-stage investments in existing portfolio companies. The fund closed at the end of April, with commitments to the two vehicles coming from the same group of LPs.

Nexus’ third fund closed at $270 million in 2012, around $50 million larger than its predecessor. This was followed by a first top-up fund – known as an “opportunity fund” – in 2014. Part of the $110 million corpus was used to participate in a $133.8 million Series D round of funding for Indian online marketplace Snapdeal.

Nexus was founded in 2006 by Naren Gupta, who is based in Silicon Valley, and Sandeep Singhal and Suvir Sujan, who head up local operations from Mumbai. The firm focuses on early-stage Indian companies across the technology, internet, media, consumer and business services industries. It makes 6-8 new investments each year, committing up to $10 million in what is usually a company’s first institutional round of funding. There is also a seed program that invests up to $500,000 in start-ups.

NEWS

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Number 17 | Volume 28 | May 12 2015 | avcj.com 7

COVER [email protected]

THE LISTING OF VRL LOGISTICS ON APRIL 15 likely came as something of relief for New Silk Route Advisors (NSR). On its first day on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the transport services provider opened at INR288 a share, a 40% premium to the offer price. This followed a INR4.6 billion ($72 million) IPO, which was 74x oversubscribed and priced at the top of the indicative range.

And then the offering represented a part-exit for NSR, which generated INR3 billion by divesting two-thirds of its 22.5% stake and secured a 2.47x return. At the time of writing, VRL was still above its IPO price, trading around the INR279 mark.

NSR was not so fortunate with Ortel Communication, which was the first private equity-backed company to list in India this year. Ortel’s IPO priced at the lower end of its range, at INR181, and was just 0.75x subscribed, which meant NSR was able to sell only half the shares it wanted. The stock opened at INR160 and the subsequent recovery has been modest. It is trading at INR170.

There have now been five listings in India so far this year, and three of the companies have private equity investors. Of MEP Infrastructure Developers, which had its debut last week, theme park operator Adlabs Entertainment, and energy firm Inox Wind, only the last fared as well as VRL.

“Not only do you have a lack of IPOs, but the few that have happened so far have not all been great quality businesses,” says Vishal Mahadevia, managing director with Warburg Pincus.“We haven’t had an exciting, big name business that has made retail investors, or the big institutional investors, say, ‘Here is something we really want to run hard at.’”

UnderwhelmingWhile there has been a pick-up in the number of IPOs in India in recent weeks, activity is still somewhat muted when one considers the performance of the public markets over the past 12 months. Part of this can be put down to the simple fact that macroeconomic tailwinds have been slow to filter through to the IPO market, but that does not offer a complete explanation of why momentum has been so slow to gather.

It is not just an issue of quality companies, but also a quality listing process, free of regulatory obfuscation. Improvements have been promised and their successful implementation is vital to private equity investors under pressure to return capital to investors.

According to AVCJ Research, the two PE-backed IPOs exits completed so far this year – Ortel and VRL Logistics – raised around $157 million and generated $57 million for their investors. Adlabs, backed by ICICI Venture Funds and Jacob Ballas Capital, did not represent an exit. Already, IPO exit activity in 2015 matches that of 2014 when just four PE-backed offerings raised $141 million between them. These included two exits worth $58 million.

However, the market is still some way off its previous peak in 2010, when 24 PE-backed IPOs raised an aggregate $1.9 billion and generated

12 exits, returning $288 million to investors. This was partly because the public markets were performing well at a time when US and European markets where still reeling from the impact of global financial crisis. PE exits as a whole saw a lift that year with proceeds of $4.3 billion from over 121 deals. These included 52 open market sales, which returned $1.45 billion.

Exit activity dropped off the following year, with $3 billion generated from 63 deals. The economy was a factor, but so too was the harsh truth that GPs were sitting on portfolios built up during the pre-crisis era of exuberance when many PE firms paid over the odds. Even if managers were able to secure exits, the multiples were often not high enough to generate a positive return.

There has been an incremental increase in exits every year since – in 2014, there were 131 PE exits in India, which returned $4.5 billion to investors – but this has not been reflected in

IPO numbers. Open market sales and trade sales continue to dominate, accounting for 97% of capital returned last year.

Not ready, not willingThere are a number of reasons why PE-backed IPO have been slow to materialize. As previously mentioned, one factor is the length of time it has taken for companies to see the benefits of India’s recent economic revival on their balance sheets. This means that a number of would-be candidates simply have not been ready to list.

“It has taken around three quarters for companies build up traction on their balance sheets, so we haven’t see too many good quality filings since the change in government, says Anup Bagchi, executive director at ICICI Securities. “It has only been since September that the number of listings has started to improve.”

Even so, not all the public offerings completed in recent months have performed to expectations. Gupta Prashant, a partner with law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), notes that the poor reception for likes of Ortel and Adlabs was mostly down to aggressive pricing. “It depends on the valuation that a company is willing to offer,” he adds. “I think there is still good demand, and capital available for reasonable valuations and better run companies.”

Warburg Pincus’ Mahadevia echoes Bagchi when he says that few companies that have received private equity backing in the last five years are mature enough to go public. However, he also makes the point that a lot of private equity investors, and the promoters they back, are not convinced IPOs are the best option considering the other possible exit avenues.

“If you look back 10 years, promoters wanted an IPO because it was the best ultimate source of capital for a long period of time and

Keeping afloat India’s public markets are at record highs, but IPO activity remains lackluster. Investors want an overhaul of the listings approval process and a regulatory system that is suited to PE and VC-backed companies

“The quality entrepreneurs have to feel that having a listed company is a big deal, it means a lot, and not think, ‘It’s a burden, it’s a hassle, and I am setting myself up for a pain” – Vishal Mahadevia

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avcj.com | May 12 2015 | Volume 28 | Number 178

for entrepreneurs it was an ambition,” says Mahadevia. “But I think that has changed a little bit because of the hassles you face, dealing with regulators and movements in stock prices – it makes you think twice.”

Bureaucratic obstaclesThe issue that comes up time and again with IPOs is the process of dealing with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and time it

take for listings to be approved. This has been the root of criticism leveled at Indian regulators who are understood to take as long as a year to green light some offerings.

It is in part due to the heightened scrutiny of companies rising from SEBI’s responsibility to protect retail investors – the number of retail investors participating in the Indian equities market is low and the regulators want more people to get involved. According to Bloomberg, less than 1.5% of the country’s population invests in securities, compared to 10% and 18% in China and the US, respectively. As such, regulators have struggled to balance the needs of small investors and those of the market.

“With SEBI you can get into all sorts of delays.

You submit the documents, they then come back with comments, and the process goes on until those comments are cleared. It can take anything from a two-and-a-half months to six months, on average” says SAM’s Prashant. “We have had one or two issues that have held up documentation with SEBI that normally would not hold it up with other regulators.”

A common sticking point is the concept of the promoters and the lock-in of shares.

SEBI requires that at least 20% of a promoter’s post-issue capital be locked-up for three years. However, in the case of private equity-backed companies the promoter often doesn’t hold as much as a 20%, while the largest shareholder is typically a financial investors looking to exit.

“What may happen is that the original guy who started the company has seen his stake diluted a lot and there are a lot of PE investors not willing to be named as promoters or controllers,” says Sandip Bhagat, a partner at S&R associates.

The second major issue is the use of proceeds. Under the current rules, companies must disclose the purpose of the issue and explain how the capital will be deployed. Typically regulators are

looking for minute details on capital expenditure projects the company is looking to undertake, such as building a manufacturing plant.

Additionally, no more than 25% of the proceeds can be used for general corporate purposes. This could be a big obstacle down the line for fast-growing technology start-ups, particularly in the e-commerce space. These companies often operate without any tangible assets and demand flexible capital that can be spent on either marketing or hiring talent. As such, they don’t necessarily meet SEBI criteria.

The restrictions have not totally precluded technology start-ups from listing locally in the past. One of the most high profile examples is Just Dial, which raised INR9.5 billion in its IPO in 2013 giving a partial exit to Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Tiger Global, ECGS and SAP Ventures. However, some of the more recent VC-backed success stories – notably e-commerce marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal – are expected to list overseas.

“Given the onerous rules placed on new offerings most, if not all, technology IPOs will take place outside of India,” says Ravi Adusumalli, general partner with SAIF Partners.

Road to reformTo encourage more home-grown companies to list locally, SEBI has started to tackle some of the bigger issues. Last month it issued a discussion paper on regulatory reform and the establishment of alternative capital-raising platform for start-ups.

In the document SEBI said it recognized the need to accommodate the increasing number fast-growing start-ups and that these companies are “loss-making and belong to sectors for which there are no comparable financials ratios available.” Hence, it concluded, they require differential treatment.

Among the proposals outlined is a provision that allows for general corporate purposes to be the main use of proceeds, which means that companies need only disclose broad objectives rather than granular details. Another important provision is that promoters are not subject to a lock-up period of three years for a minimum of 20% of the post-issue capital. Instead, shareholders investing in start-ups at the time of listing must hold to their shares for at least six months.

The caveat is that only two types of investors – qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), including family offices and non-banking financial companies, and non-institutional investors (NIIs) – will be allowed to invest in shares of these start-ups. Retail investors are restricted.

“The good news is the government is taking note, it has been listening to PE and VC investors,

COVER [email protected]

Number of India exits by type

Source: AVCJ Research

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 IPO Open market sale Share buyback Trade sale

US$

mill

ion

150

120

90

60

30

0

No. of IPO exits

India exits via IPO

Source: AVCJ Research

300

200

100

0

15

12

9

6

3

0

US$

mill

ion

Exits

Amount raised (US$m)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

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COVER [email protected]

and kind of trying its best within in the frame of the rules to improve the process and make it a little less stringent,” says Sasha Mirchandani, managing director and founder of Kae Capital.

However, there is still a question hanging over the amount of time it takes to secure a listing under the current system. While setting up a new platform will expedite the process for VC-backed start-ups by taking retail investors out of the equation, the portfolio companies of private equity investors might not be suited to this route. (It is not clear what the criteria are for listing on such a platform.) As such, they might not be able to escape the logjam.

Furthermore, even if the new platform offers an attractive outcome for venture capital-backed start-ups to list locally, there are other reasons why these companies may seek to go public overseas. In particular, it is widely thought that US investors would be more receptive to these companies, leading to higher valuations. The example that repeatedly comes to the fore is MakeMyTrip, a travel-booking platform backed by SAIF, Tiger Global, and Helion that raised $70 million in its NASDAQ IPO in 2010. It now has a market capitalization in excess of $900 million.

“There is a concern that there will not be enough understanding in the Indian market for VC-backed start-ups,” says Kae Capital’s

Mirchandani. “US investors are considered to be far more savvy and able to understand why a small-ish company like MakeMyTrip should be worth more than a billion.”

This has been made more likely by recent regulatory changes designed to make it easier for Indian companies to access foreign bourses. In late 2013, the Ministry of Finance launched a two-year pilot scheme under which approved companies can raise capital overseas without listing in India. Previously, domestically-incorporated companies had to do a share offering in India prior to or simultaneously with the overseas IPO.

MakeMyTrip was able to work around this rule because it was domiciled in Mauritius.

Home or away?The counterargument comes in two parts. First, there are no guarantees of success overseas – much depends on sentiment in the US market – and some industry participants express concern about the potential tax treatment of companies that go offshore.

Second, not everyone is of the same view as Mirchandani. Warburg Pincus’ Mahadevia believes India-based investors understand the space better than before and he is optimistic that the domestic market will see more technology IPOs,

provided regulatory hurdles are overcome. He is not alone.

“Confidence is rising in Indian IPOs,” says Sandeep Aneja, CEO and founder of Kaizen Private Equity, “Everyone has got their eyes on e-commerce – the darling sector for investors at the moment – and that sector shows results it will start to impact other sectors.”

SAM’s Prashant worked on the JustDial IPO in 2013, and believes the company traded at premium to the valuation it would have got in the US. This is because Just Dial has no peers in the Indian market, whereas in the US there are potentially hundreds of similar platforms. As a result, it is attracted a lot of domestic money.

The same could perhaps be said of a lot of other upcoming start-ups in India, from Flipkart to taxi-booking platform Ola to property listings site Housing.com. However there is still need for regulators to convince entrepreneurs, and their investors, that domestic listings are an attractive and trouble-free proposition.

“I think they need to do a better job of marketing to the entrepreneurs that it is a good thing to list your company,” say Warburg Pincus’ Mahadevia. “The quality entrepreneurs have to feel that having a listed company is a big deal, it means a lot, and not think: ‘It’s a burden, it’s a hassle, and I am setting myself up for pain.”

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avcj.com | May 12 2015 | Volume 28 | Number 1710

[email protected]

A FLEET OF ELECTRIC TRUCKS TRUNDLING across Bangalore hopes to quietly usher in a revolution. These vehicles, loaded down with fresh fruit and vegetables from local farms, and equipped with GPS and mobile internet, are the public face of the startup FreshWorld.

Customers can sign up for notifications and be told down to the minute when the trucks will be in their area. The company’s aim is to connect customers as closely to the farmers as possible, cutting out the intermediaries and grabbing their share of the economics for itself.

FreshWorld is one of a crop of Indian start-ups aiming to change the way the country shops for groceries. In many cities families rely on local markets to meet their food needs. But

the selection at these stalls is often limited, and travelling to a larger hub to obtain harder-to-find ingredients is unrealistic. Along with this, getting the day’s shopping done can mean a good deal of walking to different vendors.

Online grocery apps have sprung up to meet this need. They want to get fresh fruits and vegetables, along with various other products, into the hands of customers eager to do their daily shopping without leaving the house.

“The organized grocery retail segment is broken in India,” says Rahul Chowdhri, a partner at Helion Venture Partners, who was involved in the firm’s investment in BigBasket, one of these delivery start-ups. “For one thing, there are not enough organized players. For another, whoever is a player doesn’t make money.”

Given India’s rapid adoption of smart phones, investors believe that tech-enabled players

can attract consumers by offering the choices neighborhood markets cannot. Following BigBasket’s $33 million round last September, provided by Helion and Zodius Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management invested $45 million to Grofers across two tranches this year. FreshWorld, meanwhile, got backing from the Indian Angel Network.

Mixed basketThe online grocery market offers as many business plans as there are start-ups. BigBasket maintains its own warehouses; ZopNow uses the warehouses of established supermarket chain HyperCity; Grofers has no storage facilities, instead delivering from local market stalls. Their

areas of operation differ too: BigBasket and Grofers work across multiple cities, while smaller ventures are limited to a single city – FreshWorld, for instance, operates only in Bangalore.

This proliferation of business plans means that grocery start-ups must largely operate their own logistics infrastructure. They cannot use the same model as the established e-commerce outfits; books and DVDs can spend weeks in a warehouse and days in transit without hurting their quality. Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy, on the other hand, can only stay on the shelf for a few days, and once they are on the road they must be delivered within hours.

“If you want to build trust in the customer’s mind, you definitely have to provide good quality fruits and vegetables,” says Abhishek Rao, head of e-fulfillment at gourmet supermarket chain Nature’s Basket. The chain, which is owned by the

Godrej family conglomerate, now offers online ordering from its stores and delivery via its own fleet of motorbikes as well. “The customer really judges whether you have delivered good quality material or not. You cannot mess up in that area or they won’t come back to you.”

Companies have responded to these challenges in a number of ways. Grofers and FreshWorld, as mentioned, sidestep the storage issue – Grofers leaves that step to others to manage, while Freshworld eliminates the need for storage by shipping directly from farms. BigBasket is one of the few to tackle the warehouse requirement head-on by maintaining its own storage space.

In some ways, the logistics challenges faced by the grocery sector mirror those of India’s larger e-commerce players when they were trying to establish themselves. With outside companies like DHL and India Post proving unreliable, online merchants built up their own services. Flipkart, for example, created Ekart to handle its deliveries. The need for reliable back-end services also gave rise to companies like Delhivery, which provides a variety of services, from last-mile delivery for larger companies to an end-to-end logistics platform for smaller ones.

“In more mature markets, like the US, when e-commerce took off, the logistics and supply chain were very well formed,” says Aashish Bhinde, the executive director and head of digital and technology at Avendus Capital, which advised on Delhivery’s recent Series D round, led by Tiger Global. “In India, you couldn’t buy with that quick delivery at all. So this industry has been growing on the back of internal initiatives of people like Flipkart and third-party players like Delhivery.”

Both the e-commerce companies and the grocery start-ups have required outside capital to grow their operations. The question for investors is how do they pick the right company to back?

“In a model which is globally successful – horizontal e-commerce – you have six large companies in this country. Grocery is an even more complex business,” Helion’s Chowdhri says. He adds that the wide assortment of business plans, and the early stage of the market, mean that investors with limited means have to take a flier on a company and see if its plan bears out.

Some investors have hedged their bets

Grocery growth spurtThere has been a proliferation of start-ups in India’s online grocery sector, and investors have taken notice. But the companies that survive in the harsh competition to come will have to be tough

Business-to-consumer e-commerce sales in India

Source: Statista * Estimate

2012 2013 2014 2015* 2016* 2017* 2018*

US$

billi

on

20

15

10

5

0

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[email protected]

by providing capital to multiple companies. Sequoia, for example, balanced its investment in Grofers with commitments to several competitors, including Peppertap and TinyOwl. As competition winnows down the field, Sequoia can concentrate its attention on the companies that have staying power.

“There are diverging views as far as investors are concerned, which is good,” Chowdhri adds. “It

allows multiple companies to come about and try out. If we don’t try, then we don’t know which one will be the better model.”

The winnowing process will mean casualties among those companies that choose the wrong path. Vishal Pereira, the managing director at CreedCap Asia Advisors, which advised on Freshworld’s funding round in February, expects that of the 150 start-ups currently operating in the grocery space, only 20-30 will make it past the seed round. The rest will be left behind as the pace of innovation moves past them.

“In terms of utilization of manpower it’s going to be very tricky,” Pereira says. “When do you break even? When do you start making profits on that singular delivery guy?”

Big beastsExisting start-ups face another major challenge as India’s major e-commerce players size up the market and prepare to stake their own

claims to online grocery consumers. Amazon has already arrived in the sector; the company launched its KiranaNow service earlier this year. The business model is similar to that of Grofers, linking customers with offerings from local neighborhood markets.

Snapdeal is also entering the fray. The e-commerce giant partnered with Nature’s Basket earlier this year to sell the chain’s inventory on Snapdeal’s platform. Though neither Amazon nor Snapdeal is offering fresh meat, dairy or produce at this time, this could change as both players

gain experience operating in the grocery sector.“We definitely do see a potential for this

sector, for this business, to come up in the next five years,” says Rao of Nature’s Basket. “By 2020, we expect our online sales of groceries to be almost the same as that of offline sales.” Godrej believes its reputation and stability will be an asset as it enters the space – unlike the many newcomers in the sector, Godrej has operated in India for over a century.

Despite the challenges awaiting existing players, investors still believe in the promise of grocery start-ups. The computerized nature of the business means that companies have a database of what each customer buys and a record of what is being delivered to which locations. That presents attractive prospects for data mining.

There also exist opportunities for more old-fashioned kinds of synergy. Chowdhri points out that a truck bought to deliver food can be used to deliver anything that will fit inside it. Logistically, the cost is exactly the same. A company would be shortsighted to ignore the possibilities.

“That’s a fully-fledged travel logistics that the company owns, going to a customer’s house,” he says. “We can use it as a platform to deliver many more things. Why only groceries?”

“This industry has been growing on the back of internal initiatives of people like Flipkart and third-party players like Delhivery” – Aashish Bhinde

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avcj.com | May 12 2015 | Volume 28 | Number 1712

It is estimated that around three shots of soju is sufficient for an adult to attain a blood alcohol content of 0.05% and therefore be in violation of Korea’s laws that prohibit driving while intoxicated. Punishments start at six months in jail or a KRW3 million ($2,700) fine.

Legislation targeting drunk driving has been around for 20 years. It has given birth to a cottage industry of designated drivers who, for a fee, ferry the intoxicated individual home in their own vehicle. According to Julian Cheng, managing director at Warburg Pincus, there are 800,000 orders a day and the industry generates $8 billion in annual revenue.

Korea’s four largest cities – Seoul, Busan, Incheon and Daegu – have a combined population of around 18 million and it is these metropolises that drive demand. Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou between them have urban population of more than 63 million. Based on a similar penetration rate to Korea,

those cities alone should be able to generate daily orders of 2.8 million.

Comparisons are difficult because China is less developed than Korea and its drunk-driving

laws are younger. However, expectations of growth in demand – and the nature of supply – are behind Warburg Pincus’ decision to lead a $100 million round of funding for Chinese service eDaijia.

“The huge difference is the $8 billion in revenue in Korea is supplied by 8,000 mom and pop

vendors – people who hand out name cards and rely on third-party platforms to connect them to customers,” Cheng says. “In China there is one company with a 90% market share. Drivers and customers are directly on the app.”

Founded in 2011, eDaijia has previously received funding from Matrix Partners and Lightspeed China Partners, both of which participated in the latest round, as well as classifieds marketplace 58.com. The firm has a

presence in 25 tier-one and tier-two cities and 150 tier-three cities. This year it plans to enter another 150 tier-three cities. It has 80,000 registered drivers and receives 120,000 daily orders.

Cheng notes that designated driver services can extend to any service that involves hiring a driver for your car, including elderly people who need to travel for hospital appointments or businessmen who require a driver for a day while in a nearby city. EDaijia also wants to offer day-time, car-washing and chauffer services, and expand overseas (it is already present in Korea).

The company is likely to face competition from the dominant players in China’s taxi-booking app space, Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache, which plan to provide designated driver services. Cheng, however, plays down the threat.

“There is a big difference between ordering a car and ordering someone to drive your car,” he says. “When you get a taxi, it’s a short, standardized experience. If you are ordering a driver, this is someone driving you home in your car while you are in a drunken state. It is a completely different level of trust.”

WHEN AUSTRALIAN ENTREPRENEUR Melanie Perkins taught design in schools, she noticed that students struggled when using traditional software such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. Clearly there could be a simpler solution.

Perkins’ first start-up, Fusion Books, was co-founded with Cliff Obrecht in 2008. It is an online tool allowing students, teachers and parents to collaborate on school yearbooks. Fusion became the largest yearbook publisher in Australia and launched in France and New Zealand.

“They have a lot of insights about the graphic design industry, particularly what the difficulties are for ordinary people. Melanie has a vision that everyone in the world can create beautiful designs easily,” says Rick Baker, managing director of Blackbird Ventures, who met the founders at a conference in Perth with Bin Tai, a prominent US and Asia angel investor, in 2011.

Having proved themselves with a niche product, Perkins and Obrecht wanted to reach a wider market. This led to the creation of Canva in 2013. Through the cloud-based web platform

and mobile app users can pick a standard layout, drop in fonts and images, then save and download the final design to file.

Baker and Tai introduced the founders to potential investors in a Silicon Valley event in 2013. They received $3 million in seed funding round from a group of high-profile angle investors including Seek co-founder Paul Bassat and Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman. Matrix Partners, InterWest Partners, 500 Startups and Blackbird committed institutional capital.

Last week, Canva raised a $6 million round led by existing Matrix and Shasta Ventures. Blackbird and Australian-based new investor AirTree Ventures also participated. This came after Founders Fund and Shasta put in $3.6 million last July.

“Canva is bringing exciting innovation to the mass market design space. It has impressive growth which shows it can become a major platform for digital design,” says Tod Francis,

managing director at Shasta. “We hope to help Canva with strategy and expansion in the US.”

Over the past 20 months, approximately 2.5 million users have crated 20 million designs through Canva. It makes money through a “freemium” model – the platform is free to use but there is a catalog of special templates and

higher quality images that cost $1 each. The new capital will go towards a paid subscription service, called Canva for Work, that targets large corporates.

Canva is one of a number of Australian technology start-ups to receive funding from US investors. Blackbird in particular likes to bring Silicon Valley-based

players into funding rounds for its portfolio companies.

“We have invested in 17 companies and over 80% of them have US-based investors,” Baker says. “It happens more sporadically and opportunistically in the earlier rounds, but in the later rounds it’s becoming more common.”

DEAL OF THE [email protected] / [email protected]

Warburg Pincus rides with China’s eDaijia

Canva’s simple design wins VC support

Canva: Design made simple

EDaijia: Call when drunk

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CHINA’S APPETITE FOR FASHION IS massive and growing. A recent report by the Fung Business Intelligence Centre put the country’s apparel retail market at around RMB1.14 trillion ($187 billion) in 2013, up 11.6% from the previous year. China is expected to replace the US at the head of the global rankings by 2017.

Japanese fashion labels have been keen to grab a slice of this market, and a number of brands have made their first forays into China with private equity backing. Recent examples include womenswear label Olive des Olive, which J-Star shepherded through a period of China expansion before exiting to Takisada-Osaka in 2013. The same year, Baroque Japan was sold by CLSA Capital Partners to CDH Investments and Chinese women’s shoe retailer Belle International in a bid to boost the brand’s presence in the country.

Japanese apparel brand Mark Styler, acquired last week by CITIC Capital, continues this trend.

The financials of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction falls within the typical range of CITIC’s $217 million Japan fund: between JPY3 billion and JPY10 billion ($25 million and $83 million).

“Consumer goods – particularly Japanese brands – has been one of the key focus areas in our investment strategy,” says Jessica Zhang,

executive director for CITIC Capital’s Japan PE team. “As consumer demand among the emerging middle class has risen, so has the desire for high-quality Japanese products.”

Set up in 2005, Mark Styler has a portfolio of 17 women’s fashion labels including MercuryDuo, Emoda, Dazzlin, Murua, and

Ungrid. It also operates a network of 170 own-branded stores and has its own e-commerce portal, Runway Channel. The company is understood to have generated JPY37 billion in revenue for the 2014 financial year.

“The target segment market is young women

in their 20s but within that group each brand has distinct characteristics, and targets a unique segment,” explains Zhang. “So the company is competitive in each specific segment.”

Mark Styler has sold its products Singapore and Hong Kong through local suppliers. In China the plan is to expand in the business further by opening branded stores in tier-one and tier-two cities, not just under Mark Styler name, but under each of the company’s flagship brands.

“The strength of this company is that it is good at managing its brand portfolio and it is very good at creating new brands in Japan,” says Zhang. ‘So there are still niche market segments where there are opportunities for this company to be innovative and find growth in Japan.”

However, she adds that the growth opportunities go beyond opening physical stores and expanding the brand portfolio. A large part of the company’s future strategy will involve its online business. “The company’s e-commerce business is already getting very good traffic from their target consumers and this is likely to be a strong driver of growth,” she says.

DEAL OF THE [email protected]

CITIC tries Mark Styler on for size

Emoda: Seeking China growth

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Number 17 | Volume 28 | May 12 2015 | avcj.com 15

Q: A corporate governance code has been proposed to improve board accountability within listed Japanese companies. What does this mean for PE?

A: The government has been reasonably successful in the liquidity enhancement initiatives through quantitative easing and public spending. But for the economy to continue expanding there has to be sustainable growth in the employment base, so there is a desire to drive growth in mid-cap companies that provide most of the jobs. The code is part of this effort in that it is intended to improve corporate performance. A good number of spin-off discussions are taking place because of this. And a lot of regional financial institutions whose typical approach is to provide debt-based solutions for mid-cap companies are becoming more proactive about working with people like us instead.

Q: So, with more independent directors on company boards, decisions to divest assets to PE will be taken more readily?

A: Although spinning off businesses is not part of many companies’ natural business thinking, we are involved in a fair number of discussions with large conglomerates, and these companies are not from the electronics sector. If you look at spin-offs in Japan the first wave focused on automobiles and parts and then there was a period during which a host of electronics giants were selling businesses. The next wave of carve-outs will not necessarily be straightforward restructurings. We are close to announcing the acquisition of a business from

a very large non-electronics concern.

Q: The corporate governance code is part of the structural reforms outlined in the third arrow of the government’s economic strategy. What progress is being made?

A: The jury is still out. Progress has been slower than people expected in terms of concrete plans being drawn up and implemented. The near-term impact might come from a variety of special economic zones where corporate activity could be boosted through lenient tax or accounting treatment. There are also reforms in the agriculture sector. Old-style politics has made it difficult to implement change, but change is critical to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Agricultural cooperatives are being forced to alter their approach, creating a bit more competition. These are visible improvements.

Q: What are your views on the economy in general?

A: Outside of the consumption tax shock which took place about a year ago, we are seeing reasonably positive economic figures on a fairly consistent basis. There are always some minor ups and downs. We are seeing improvement in unemployment rates, reasonably inflationary trends on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and while consumer spending is slow to recover, the picture is quite different from 12 months ago. And then the yen is sticking at about JPY120 to the dollar, which is helping corporates and supporting a better psyche in

the market. Given Japan relies on imports for over 90% of its energy needs, lower oil prices are also a positive.

Q: Against this backdrop Unison is about to make its first

investment in about two years. Why the hiatus?

A: We have spent a fair amount of time selling businesses. We have also made a lot of proposals and put in occasional bids in auction situations but they were pushing beyond what we were prepared to spend. There have also been deals we decided not to pursue because we don’t want to focus on a particular area. We want to have a fairly concentrated range of businesses and transaction sizes in our upcoming fund, which adhere to specific value creation themes. There is a consciousness on our part not to

dance with just any girl out there on the floor.

Q: There have been five exits in the past 12 months. What trends do you see?

A: Enoteca [a wine retailer sold to Asahi Group] was an interesting case for us. It’s a small business but wine is an interesting area for the alcoholic beverage companies. They are not making huge profits from their core beer businesses, and wine is high margin and has some reasonable growth opportunities. Enoteca was able to carve out a sizeable share of the market and it is also uniquely positioned in that it is a wholesale distributor and chain store operator as well as an importer. In addition, the company has a fairly sizeable online business.

Q: Most recently, various assets held by Asahi Tec were sold to India’s Amtek Auto. Was this an unusual buyer?

A: There is a lot of talk about Asian players entering the Japanese manufacturing space by acquiring assets, but there haven’t been many significant deals of that nature. We orchestrated one transaction with a Taiwanese player in the semiconductor space (Covalent’s silicon wafer business was sold to Sino-American Silicon Products in 2012) and now there we now have this auto parts deal. There continues to be very strong interest from Asia, but how do you turn that into deals? It might help the Japanese industry to tie up with those Asian players because the market is shifting. In that sense our role as transition capital is playing out in the way it should be playing out.

TATSUO KAWASAKI | INDUSTRY Q&A [email protected]

Reform agendaUnison Capital is in the process of raising its fourth Japan-focused fund. Tatsuo Kawasaki, a partner at the firm, discusses how government policy and market dynamics might impact its deployment

“There is a consciousness on our part not to dance with just any girl out there on the floor”

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Jacob ChiuManaging Director and Head of Asia, Auda

Jonathan ZhuManaging Director,Bain Capital Asia

William HayGeneral Counsel,Baring Private Equity Asia

Yan YangDirector,BlackRock Private Equity Partners

Danny LeePartner, Blue Pool Capital

Alvin LiSenior Managing Director and Head of Direct Inrestments,CCB International Asset Management

Yong Kai WongManaging Director and Head of Legal & Compliance,CITIC Capital

Eric XinSenior Managing Director and Founding Partner, CITIC Capital Partners Management Limited

Leenong LiManaging Director and Beijing Office Chief Representative,Commonfund Capital

Conrad TsangChairman,Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association

SC MakVice Chairman, PRC Committee,Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association

Richard HsuManaging Director, Intel Capital

Rupert ChamberlainPartner, Head of Private Equity, Hong KongKPMG in China

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Rico KangVice President,Legend Capital

Brooke ZhouExecutive Director - Asia Pacific, Private Equity,LGT Capital Partners

Herry HanPartner,Lightspeed Venture Partners

YR ChengPartner,Lunar Capital

Pamela FungPrincipal,Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners

Ryan LawManaging Director,Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia

Thomas ChouPartner and Chair of China Private Equity Practice,Morrison & Foerster

Richard BartonManaging Partner,Newgate Communications (HK)

Bonnie LoPartner,NewQuest Capital Partners

Gabriel LiManaging Partner & Investment Committee Member,Orchid Asia Group Management

Jie GongPartner,Pantheon Ventures (HK)

Qiwei ChenChairman,PE Association of Shanghai

Steve WangManaging Director,Pine Field Capital Partners

Velisarios KattoulasCEO,The Poseidon Group

Danny YeungCEO,Prenetics

Jie LianFounding Partner,Primavera Capital Group

Lorna ChenPartner,Shearman & Sterling

Chris BurchAdviser to the Chairman,Shenzhen Capital Group

Jerry ChiangManaging Director,SNSI Capital Management Inc.

Vincent ChanCEO,Spring Capital Asia

Weichou SuPartner,StepStone Group

Kenneth LinChairman,Taiwan Private Equity Association

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