Infinity Group has launched Chongqing Infinity Funds, cooperations between Infinity Group and the Chongqing Banan District People’s Government that will be available both in RMB and US dollars.
The Chongqing Infinity RMB Fund is Infinity’s 11th city-level RMB fund. It is also Infinity’s first fund in China managed by its wholly foreign owned enterprise (WFOE). The target size of the RMB Fund is RMB6 billion, including MB500 million for the first round. Banan’s state-owned enterprise Chongqing Highway Infrastructure Construction Limited, together with three private-sector enterprises, Chongqing Zongshen Industrial Group, Chongqing Sifang Concrete Limited and Chongqing Dianya Real Estate Development Limited, together committed a total of RMB200 million at the first closing.
In addition, Infinity’s dollar fund, under Chongqing’s foreign investment private equity funds trial plan, has a target size of USD1 billion. Established in Banan, the dollar fund plans to make its first investment in Beijing Wanbo Tiandi Web Technology Limited (Tsinghua Wanbo).
Tsinghua Wanbo is Cisco’s earliest strategic training partner, and has helped to train a large number of Cisco engineers. Wanbo is also a training partner and technology service provider for Nortel, SUN, HP and other top-tier IT enterprises. Among other things, this round of investment is intended to promote Wanbo’s plans for IPO.
Infinity Group also announced today that it has signed strategic cooperation agreements with Banan District and Zongshen Group, respectively.
Infinity Group founder and managing partner, Amir Gal-Or (pictured), says: "We highly appreciate the firm support of the Chongqing Finance office, the Foreign Trade and Economic Commission, and the Banan District government which has created the "Banan-speed". China’s future is in the West, and Chongqing is the center of the Southwest, the pearl on the Yangtze River, which has great potential to combine speed and height for future development. Chongqing is actively building its financial centre along the Yangtze River by encouraging the large-scale growth of local companies and their subsequent IPOs. It has also created a well-established and attractive foreign investment system for foreign investors. This macro-economy trend is creating a platform with great potential for foreign investors and private equity firms."
Gal-Or adds: "Infinity is willing to support the "China-out" strategy of larger-scale local Chinese companies. The timing is right when Chinese companies start to venture overseas for strategic acquisitions, business upgrades and global growth. An example of this is ChemChina’s recent acquisition of IDB Group’s Machtashim Agan, Israel’s largest fertilizer producer. As Infinity Group is backed by the IDB Group, and has a global cultural business network via its outbound acquisition fund, Infinity Group is confident in its ability to guide Chinese companies with an interest in acquiring , outside of china, high-quality companies, assets as well as advanced technologies and IP, all with a well-protected deal structure."
