Noah sets up Hong Kong subsidiary
Noah Holdings, the Shanghai-headquartered third-party financial advisory company, is launching a Hong Kong subsidiary. It wants to provide investment products to international investors and mainland customers who already have assets overseas.
Founded in 2005, Noah is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and counts Sequoia Capital, which first invested in the company in 2007, among its shareholders. The company distributes wealth management products that are originated in China, including fixed income products and private equity funds.
"As one of Noah's strengths is screening GPs according different industries and development stages, we have also developed our own renminbi-denominated fund-of-funds, with a total value of RMB3.3billion." Jingbo Wang, founder of Noah, told AVCJ.
Given Hong Kong's free flow of information and international exposure, Wang sees the city as an ideal bridge between China and global financial markets. She adds the company is going to roll out its first US dollar-denominated fund-of-funds, hopefully within this year.
"Although many local GPs in China have so far focused a lot on local currency funds, some of them have been looking into setting up dollar funds, with Hong Kong as their first stop," Wang explained. "Noah is getting prepared for the future boom of such demand."
Noah's financial services also involve fundraising for GPs, including the likes of CDH Investments, Sequoia Capital and SAIF Partners. The company receives a share of management fees and carried interest in return for its services.
"During fundraising, we always targets investors with investible assets of over RMB10 million," Wang said. "Around 70% are entrepreneurs who wish to allocate part of their asset portfolios, maybe 20% to 30%, into private equities."
Wang added that she hopes to see more fundraising legislation introduced in china in order to bring about consolidation of the industry and eliminate unqualified participants.
As of September last year, Noah had operations in 53 mainland cities, with over 500 financial advisors. Its net income reached $5.7 million for last year's third quarter, an 83% increase from 2010. The company will announce its full-year results on February 29.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.