André Loesekrug‐Pietri: Very Few Chinese Outbound Investments Are Successful

http://www.ChinaMoneyNetwork.com In this episode of China Money Network, guest André Loesekrug‐Pietri, founder of A Capital, explains why his fund's China-Europe cross-border strategy will thrive even in the current world economic malaise, how did he become attracted to the Chinese markets, and why his new fund was able to secure two star institutional investors. Listen to the full interview in the audio podcast, watch an abbreviated video version, or read an excerpt. Q: first, a brief introduction of A Capital? A: We are a European growth capital fund focused on investing in European companies that have strong growth potentials in China. Once we make the decision to invest in (a European company), we bring a Chinese strategic co-investor that has the resources and expertise to make this European company succeed in China. Q: You have both a Euro fund and a RMB fund. The Euro fund has a target size of €250 million. How much have you raised so far? A: We have raised a significant amount of that. Our fund is relatively new, just a bit over a year old and we've done two deals so far. Several months ago, we had our first closing with two major investors, one from China and the other one from Europe. Q: These are the Belgian Federal Holdings and China Investment Corporations? A: Yes, both of them invested in our Luxemburg fund. Our fund is actually a regulated fund, even thought only funds with over €500 million are required to be regulated in Europe. We decided to be regulated by the Luxemburg Financial Authority because of the quality of our investors. We have a second, RMB fund that we have set up in cooperation with the Beijing Municipal government, specifically, Beijing's Office of Financial Works. The fund is unique in that it is allowed to raise money in RMB in China and invest overseas. The two funds invest in complete parallel terms. The RMB fund is a tool for us to allow Chinese LPs to invest overseas through our vehicle......... André Loesekrug-Pietri is founder and managing partner of A Capital, a private equity firm focused on Chinese outbound investments. Previously, André cofounded CEL Partners, a European growth capital fund dedicated to China focused on clean tech and healthcare. He also developed Jaccar Capital Fund, a PE fund for Vietnam and China, and managed Burelle Participations until 2005. He has both German and French citizenship.