Yangcheng Evening News reporter Huang Ting
Recently, the news that Hubei "spends a lot of money" to integrate and set up a 50 billion yuan fund of funds has attracted attention. This super fund of funds is composed of two fund of funds of 10 billion yuan, Changjiang Venture Capital Fund and 40 billion yuan, Changjiang Industrial Investment Fund. , is expected to guide the enlargement of the establishment of various funds of 500 billion yuan.
A reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News noticed that this is also a microcosm of the accelerated development of "urban investment banks" in recent years.
According to the "2021 Special Research Report on Government Guidance Funds" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the China Investment Research Institute, as of the end of 2021, the growth rate of the number and scale of my country's government guidance funds has rebounded significantly; There are 15 ten billion fund of funds established.
Focusing on the highland of science and technology innovation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, "investing early" and "investing in small" have become the positioning of many FOFs.
As early as March 2018, Shenzhen established a Shenzhen Angel Fund of Funds with a total scale of 10 billion yuan; the Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Funds has subscribed and contributed nearly 2 billion yuan to 21 sub-funds, leveraging more than 2 billion yuan in social capital. 6 billion yuan.
Out of the loop
The scale of government guidance funds "blowout"
What is a Fund of Funds?
That is, private equity investment FOFs can be divided into government guidance funds, state-owned market-oriented FOFs and private market-oriented FOFs, while most domestic FOFs are Chinese-style FOFs, which have both the functions of capital allocation and policy guidance. Government-guided FOFs are the main force, accounting for about 2/3 of the number and scale of FOFs in China.
The "Report" shows that in the whole year of 2021, the number of government guidance funds and their own scale have increased significantly compared with 2020, with an increase of 77% and 207% respectively.
Under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the government guidance fund, as the regulator of the supply side, needs to assume greater responsibility.
A reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News noticed that before Hubei set up a 50-billion-yuan fund of funds, many cities had already "out of the circle" by virtue of their outstanding performance in the field of venture capital.
As early as 2003, Shenzhen promulgated the first local regulations on venture capital in China, and a large number of influential local venture capital and venture capital institutions have emerged. As a government investment platform, Shenzhen Investment Control will become Shenzhen's first venture capital in 2020. The world's top 500 state-owned enterprises; and the Hefei government has invested heavily to establish a fund platform, successively investing in BOE, betting on semiconductors, taking over iFLYTEK, introducing NIO, Volkswagen, and investing in Visionox, etc., and started the "best venture capital institution". 's name...
Different industrial development environments have spawned different investment methods for government-guided funds.
For example, Shenzhen has the smallest number of government guidance funds, but the average size is 3.8 billion yuan, that is to say, it is more concentrated than other cities and invested in market-oriented institutions, called blind pool funds; while many regions have established special funds to introduce Major projects, and cultivate industries more precisely.
Xie Baojian, deputy dean of the Southern Institute of Advanced Finance, Jinan University, analyzed that the investment portfolio of the blind pool fund is uncertain, and local projects must have a certain proportion; Shenzhen chose the blind pool fund model because of its excellent business environment and entrepreneurial environment. In most cities across the country, and Shenzhen's industries and enterprises have a relatively high degree of marketization, it is more likely to select advantageous industries and projects through market mechanisms.
Industry to promote investment
"Getting together" to lock in strategic emerging industries
The establishment of government guidance funds is often the first move in the industrial layout of various regions.
The purpose of Hubei's recent large-scale investment is to "help Hubei's industrial transformation and upgrading and high-quality economic development".
The relevant person in charge of the Hefei Investment Promotion Bureau also said that Hefei state-owned assets have become a leader in the development of strategic emerging industries in Hefei, a booster and a traction rope for industrial upgrading.
In the past, the industrial support policy was the direct support of financial funds, and after the approval of government departments, the funds were given to the supported enterprises.
Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that compared with direct financial support, the main difference between the two lies in the support efficiency. The relationship between the government and the market improves the efficiency of capital use.
In addition, it can also leverage more resources to flow into related industries and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of local industries.
According to the requirements of government guidance funds for investment fields disclosed in the "Report", 88% of the domestic funds stipulated that they could invest in strategic emerging industries, 43% stipulated that they could invest in local characteristic industries, and 33% stipulated that they could invest in infrastructure construction projects.
As for the government's guiding funds to lock in strategic emerging industries, Zhou Maohua believes that to some extent, this will help guide resource agglomeration and accelerate the development of national strategic emerging industries.
"However, if the demonstration and research are not fully carried out and the project is launched blindly, there may be a situation of lack of speed and waste of resources. After all, there are differences in the endowments of talents, industries, resources, and markets in each province."
In Xie Baojian's view, blindly following the trend can easily lead to a situation of "one thousand cities, one side", and the financial strength of each local government is different, and the current local debt is high, and it is necessary to invest limited funds in favor of high-quality regional economic development. Otherwise, it will be difficult to leverage social capital.
"Early vote" "Small vote"
The Greater Bay Area set off a boom in FOF investment
In addition, the sinking of government-guided funds to the district and county level has also become a major trend in the development of FOFs.
In terms of time, from April 2021, large-scale district and county-level guiding funds have been established, mainly in Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and other provinces.
Industry analysts believe that in 2022, the guidance funds of district and county governments will become an important force in China's fund of funds industry.
Xie Baojian believes that the purpose of setting up guiding funds by district and county governments is mainly to cultivate local pillar industries, thereby stimulating the county economy. The size of the fund is also closely related to the level of local economic development and fiscal revenue and expenditure.
Compared with provincial and municipal guidance funds, a higher proportion of district and county-level government guidance funds are entrusted to market-oriented institutions.
Since 2021, the fund of funds market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has ushered in an investment boom.
According to the "2021 First Half of China's Fund of Funds Panorama Report" released by the Fund of Funds Research Center, there are nearly 50 funds of funds in Guangdong, ranking second in the country in terms of the number of new funds of funds and the number and scale of existing funds of funds.
Technological innovation has become an important label for many Greater Bay Area FOFs.
In November 2021, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Science and Technology Innovation Industry Investment Fund was officially established by the China Economic Reform Research Foundation, which is under the charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, in conjunction with central enterprises, leading technology companies, and local governments. 100 billion yuan is a strategic investment fund focusing on key areas of technological innovation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In order to support the development and growth of early-stage technology companies, various cities are also making efforts in parent funds and venture capital.
Taking Guangzhou as an example, the "Implementation Opinions on Further Promoting the Integrated Development of Technological Finance and Industry in the New Era" issued in July 2021 proposed to accelerate the construction of a capital of venture capital and venture capital.
As for the Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Funds, which has attracted much attention, according to the draft of the implementation rules, it will focus on cultivating a group of future unicorn innovation enterprises and specialized new enterprises in Guangzhou.