FountainVest scoops top AVCJ China Awards

FountainVest Partners claimed the Firm of the Year and US dollar fundraising prizes at the 2013 AVCJ China Awards, which were presented in Beijing last week as part of the AVCJ China Forum.

Homer Sun, CIO of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA), was named PE Professional of the Year while the PE consortium that backed Alibaba Group's Yahoo buyback claimed the PE Deal of the Year prize.

In a challenging fundraising environment, FountainVest closed its second fund over target at $1.35 billion after just seven months in the market. The PE firm has also been at the forefront of the wave of China take-private deals, playing a key role in the $3.7 billion club deal for China Focus Media and taking the lead as the sole PE backer of a smaller privatization of LJ International.

"We are proud to be one of the lead investors and an active participant the privatization of Focus Media," said Yancen Lu, a director at FountainVest, who collected the awards.

He added that the PE firm will continue to back quality entrepreneurs with growth capital but also look for more buyout opportunities, and it has been adding to its investment and operations teams in preparation.

MSPEA's Sun won the PE Professional of the Year award in recognition of a busy year for his team in which one China control deal has been completed and a further two are pending. The captive PE unit bought Hi-24, a leading Beijing convenience store chain in a carve-out from the company's parent last November. The other two deals are both take-privates of US-listed Chinese companies.

Private Equity Deal of the Year went to one of the largest ever transactions involving a Chinese company as Alibaba Group repurchased half of a 40% stake in itself held by Yahoo for $7.6 billion last September. The private equity funding in the deal was led by China Investment Corp, with Boyu Capital, CITIC Capital and CDB Capital coming in as new investors. Existing PE investors in Alibaba also increased their holdings.

Chinese super angel Lei Jun, of Shunwei Capital Partners, was named Venture Capital Professional of the Year. One of the companies he created, mobile phone company Xiaomi, took the VC deal prize after being valued at $4 billion in its most recent round of funding.

CDH Investments took the renminbi fundraising award for Tianjin CDH Equity Investment Fund II, while Exit of the Year went to The Carlyle Group for China Pacific Insurance.

THE WINNERS

• Firm of the Year - FountainVest Partners

• Private Equity Professional of the Year - Homer Sun (Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia)

• Venture Capital Professional of the Year - Lei Jun (Shunwei Capital Partners)

• Private Equity Deal of the Year - Alibaba Group (Boyu Capital/China Investment Corp/China Development Bank Capital/CITIC Capital/DST Advisors/Silver Lake/Temasek Holdings)

• Venture Capital Deal of the Year - Xiaomi (Shunwei Capital Partners/IDG Ventures/Morningside Technologies/Qiming Venture Partners/Qualcomm Ventures/Temasek Holdings/DST Advisors/GIC)

• Exit of the Year - China Pacific Insurance (The Carlyle Group)

• Fundraising of the Year, US Dollar - FountainVest China Growth Fund II (FountainVest Partners)

• Fundraising of the Year, Renminbi - Tianjin CDH Equity Investment Fund II (CDH Investments)

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• Topics
• Performance
• Greater China
• AVCJ Awards
• AVCJ Events
• China