An emerging China tech IPO bubble? - Paul Gillis

Paul Gillis

China tech companies feel the pressure from their investors to join the emerging IPO wave, and that might not be a good development, says Paul Gillis, Beida accounting professor, at Nextunicorn.ventures.

Next Unicorn Ventures:

Hurun Research Institute reports that 151 companies in China have attained unicorn status by the end of the first quarter, with half of these unicorns incubated or backed by industry titans such as Alibaba and Tencent Holdings. Their combined valuations exceeded 4 trillion yuan (about US$630 billion). 

Moreover, according to a professor of accounting at Peking University Paul Gillis, there’s a fear of missing out and Chinese tech companies might receive pressure from investors to join in and join big. He added that Meituan-Dianping’s valuation target of US$60 billion is hard to understand, given that the company has revealed a steep loss of US$2.9 billion last year from share-based compensation.

More at Next Unicorn Ventures.

Paul Gillis is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Company valuations go through the roof - Marc van der Chijs

+Marc van der Chijs 

China-investor Marc van der Chijs visited Shanghai for a board meeting of Dianrong, a financial internet firm, and summarized a few observations on his weblog. Company valuations are going through the roof and how they start to buy R&D outside China.

Marc van der Chijs:

Company valuations are going through the roof, especially private company valuations. When Tudou raised its first round in late 2005 valuations were probably 10% of what they are now. At one time Tudou raised the largest round ever for a Chinese company, which was $57 million at that time. Now that number is just peanuts and many companies have raised hundreds of millions in later stage rounds. 

Although in Silicon Valley valuations are also extremely high (e.g. Uber @ $40 billion and Snapchat @ $19 billion), I have the feeling that Chinese tech companies tend to get ever higher valuations based on the same numbers. I have no data on this, but that’s just what I hear when talking to local VCs. One reason may be that the Chinese market is potentially much bigger than the US market, although most Chinese have a lot less earning power. And for Chinese companies it may be easier to go abroad (with the right management teams) than it is for US companies to enter China. 

A relatively new trend is that Chinese companies are now actively buying R&D from outside China. With growth rates going down to about 7% this year they need to find other ways to grow faster, and foreign intellectual property is a good investment for that. We see it a lot at CrossPacific Capital and several of our portfolio companies are in discussions with Chinese buyers. Chinese companies are especially looking for companies that can deliver revenue right away, so products that can immediately be integrated or sold in China. 

The valuation of these companies mainly depends on the current product portfolio and less on the value of the IP for future products. Chinese business men want to see results now, nobody knows what will happen in 4-5 years so that’s less important. Generally valuations for these companies are a lot higher in China than in North America, meaning that if you can identify the right products or technology you can make a good return on your investment. However, valuations are not as high as Chinese Internet and tech companies.

More impressions at Marc van der Chijs´ weblog.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more internet experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

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