Weekly Digest - March 31 2021

Seven years ago, China Renaissance was a private equity upstart, with almost all of its revenue derived from advising internet companies on funding rounds and M&A. That has now been turned on its head. The firm announced last week that investment management accounted for 50% of revenue in 2020 compared to 37% for investment banking. Assets under management rose 68% year-on-year to RMB57.4 billion ($8.7 billion) but management fee income shrank. The main contributor to investment management revenue was net investment gains for funds - mostly its own - in which China Renaissance holds LP positions.

BAIN & COMPANY ON PORTFOLIO RESILIENCE

Three out of five GPs in Asia Pacific would be willing to forego at least 5% of near-term profit if that sum could be invested in making their portfolio companies more resilient. One-third said investee companies either don’t have tools to assess resilience or are in the early stages of applying those tools. A similar proportion claim that companies are still at an experimental stage when it comes to building up capabilities in this area.
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CBRE ON ASIA DATA CENTERS

Asian data center supply doubled during 2020 to an all-time high of 320 megawatts. Another 1,500 MW is to be completed in the region in the next three years as 5G rollouts extend pandemic-driven booms in videoconferencing, online schooling, entertainment, social networking, and remote work.
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CREDIT SUISSE ON SECONDARIES

GP-led transactions accounted for about $35 billion out of an estimated $65 billion in global secondary transaction volume in 2020, the first time this deal type has represented a majority. The ways in which secondary firms are now interfacing with sponsors have the potential to augment, if not fundamentally disrupt, traditional corporate finance alternatives for portfolio assets.
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FUNDRAISING

DEALS