China launches fund to bring back overseas-listed Chinese firms

Shengjing, a Chinese investment advisor and manager, has launched the country's first investment fund dedicated to helping overseas-listed Chinese firms to delist and list instead on domestic stock markets, the official China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.

The 2 billion yuan ($322.50 million) fund of funds (FoF) aims to bring home Chinese companies which currently have so-called variable interest entity (VIE) structures, and are partially held by US dollar funds, the newspaper said.

VIE structures have been widely used by Chinese technology companies, in particularly internet giants like Alibaba , Baidu and Tencent.

Because foreign ownership in China's internet sector is blocked, and Chinese internet startups have difficulty meeting profitability requirements to list onshore, the VIE structure was developed to satisfy the ownership requirements of overseas security regulators without technically breaking Chinese law.

The FoF will invest in about 10 funds with that purpose, which could eventually see at least 10 billion yuan of funds at work to bring over 100 overseas listed companies home, the article said.

China's start-up board ChiNext and the country's leading over-the-counter marketplace, the New Third Board, has attracted huge investor interest, with valuation of companies listed there soaring.

But trading in many overseas-listed Chinese companies is generally lukewarm, partly due to some offshore investors' distrust of such entities.