(By Caixin journalists Qu Yunxu and Denise Jia)
Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investors, once enthralled with China, are now struggling to find new investment strategies — or just the exits — as Chinese stocks extend a three-year slump.
In the first three quarters of 2023, indicators for fundraising, investment and exits by PE and VC firms in the Chinese market all declined, according to equity investment research institution Zero2IPO Group. The number of new funds dropped by 2.1% from a year earlier to 5,344 and the scale of these funds fell 20.2% to 1.35 trillion RMB (US$187 billion).
“After the Spring Festival holiday in 2023, everyone was on the road, expecting a recovery and rally in the market,” said Wang Lixing, managing director of PE firm China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. But by April, when the anticipated rally did not materialise, PE and VC firms’ willingness to make deals declined and the…
