Everbright, Wuxi Guolian set up RMB500m VC fund

State-back conglomerates China Everbright and Wuxi Guolian Financial Investment Group Company have jointly raised RMB500 million ($73 million; €49 million) for a venture capital fund.

Everbright committed close to 50 percent of the Everbright Guolian Fund’s capital while Wuxi Guolian was the other major investor in the fund, an Everbright spokesman told PEI Asia. Other investors include companies based in Wuxi, he added.

While the fund can invest throughout the country, it will primarily invest in companies based in Wuxi and looking to list on China’s Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise and Growth Enterprises Market Boards. It will focus on sectors such as alternative energy, new materials, biological and pharmaceutical products and services, energy conservation, electronics, information technology and precision manufacturing, according to an Everbright statement. 

The fund will leverage Everbright’s and Wuxi Guolian’s networks, experience and resources, Chen Shuang, EverBright’s CEO, said in the statement.

Three months earlier, Everbright teamed up with Australian bank Macquarie Group to raise two greater China-focused infrastructure funds. The joint venture aims to raise $1.5 billion from domestic and international investors for an RMB fund and a US dollar fund, which will have identical mandates and co-invest together.

Everbright’s operations include direct investments, asset management and investment, corporate finance and wealth management. The Hong Kong-listed financial company has offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Beijing. Its parent company is holding company China Everbright, a state-owned enterprise.

Backed by the Wuxi government, Wuxi Guolian is a financial and industrial holding company involved in direct venture capital and private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring.