The First Visit Of Sino French Cooperation Fund To Holland Ophthalmology

At the end of July, the Sino French cooperation fund completed the investment in the Dutch Eye Research Center (Dutch Ophthalmology), an enterprise of vitreoretinal surgery equipment, with an investment scale of 80 million euro.

The Sino French cooperation fund is jointly sponsored by China Investment Corporation (CIC), eurazeo (eurazeo) and BNP Paribas. In November 2019, the fund was officially launched in the presence of leaders of China and France.

The total scale of the Sino French cooperation fund is 1 billion euro, and the 400 million euro funds raised in the first phase are all contributed by eurizer, CIC and BNP Paribas. According to the agreement, the three cornerstone investors can make an additional investment of 250 million euro, and the investment ceiling of BNP Paribas and CIC is 25% of the fund. Meanwhile, the third-party fund-raising will be launched.

"Although we have sovereign fund CIC as an important investor, the operation of the fund is still completely market-oriented, and eurizza is also the only fund manager." Chen Yonglan, managing director and President of Asia Pacific China, said in an exclusive interview with 21st century economic reporter.

Eurizer is a 140 year old asset management organization, which manages 18.8 billion euro (about 154.8 billion yuan) of assets, of which 6.3 billion euro is its own capital, and has 430 invested enterprises in the world.

First order of Sino French cooperation fund

Founded in 1983, it currently provides surgeons in more than 570 million euro countries and regions in the Netherlands. The above-mentioned foreign investment fund of EUR 80 million is the first investment made by China and France.

From the perspective of target selection, the Sino French cooperation fund mainly invests in the "invisible champions" in Europe, just like the fields that eurizza was good at in the past. The "invisible champion" was proposed by Hermann Simon in the late 1980s. The typical characteristics of such enterprises include: they are absolute leaders in a certain segment, the annual sales volume does not exceed 5 billion euro, and the public awareness is low.

It is reported that Holland ophthalmology will make use of the respective advantages of major investors eurizer and China Investment Co., Ltd. to realize the development in the Chinese market. According to the estimation of the fund management team, the growth rate of China's posterior segment surgery market will maintain growth at a compound average growth rate of 15% - 20% from 2015 to 2020. This investment will help Dutch ophthalmology accelerate its development in the Chinese market.

It is reported that the Sino French cooperation fund has helped Holland ophthalmology set up an advisory committee composed of famous Chinese surgeons to help Holland ophthalmology enter the market and launch products to meet the specific needs of the Chinese market.

"The Chinese market needs that speed." In Chen Yonglan's expectation, through the full layout of the Chinese market, Dutch ophthalmology will become the world's leading enterprise in vitreoretinal surgery.

It is worth noting that Dutch ophthalmology is a invested company of eurazeo capital. In April 2019, eurizza, through its managed eurazeo capital IV, controls Dutch ophthalmology for about 300 million euros.

Chen Yonglan told the 21st century economic report that the Dutch ophthalmology department had already made clear its China strategy when it invested in it. Because the Sino French cooperation fund is still in the preparation stage, it is funded by eurazeo capital IV. This is the only previous project invested by the Sino French cooperation fund in oreze.

It has been revealed that the Sino French cooperation fund is also promoting the second investment project, UTAC, the leading automobile inspection and testing company in Europe.

It is worth mentioning that the project was completed during the whole period. Like Dutch Ophthalmology, the new deal will have its Chinese story. We will participate in the development of OEMs strategy, cooperation and support from OEMs in the future.

China story of European PE

Oriza has a history of 140 years, long before the emergence of private equity funds. At the end of 2012, Oriza officially proposed global positioning. A few months later, the team opened its second global office in Shanghai, China, which also became eurizza's Asia Pacific headquarters.

One of the main tasks of eurizza's equity investment business team is to invest in Europe's invisible champions and jointly develop emerging markets such as China and Brazil with enterprises.

Chen Yonglan is the founder of orenze's China office. Before joining Oriza, he was deputy director and chief representative of the Swedish government investment promotion agency, international director of the US Council for international economic development, and director of the information technology center of the United Nations development program.

In the past seven years, the team led by eurizer has promoted nearly 30 enterprises including Italian luxury down jacket brand moncler and high-end pension real estate operator Colisee to realize business landing and expansion in China alone.

The above-mentioned projects are distributed in many fields, including medical and health care, consumer services, advanced manufacturing, clean environmental protection, and Internet technology, including nearly 10 projects currently managed and operated in China, including planet, an international payment service provider, and iberchem group, a Spanish flavor and fragrance company.

Post investment management is different in different markets, different industries and different stages. Oreze has explored different possibilities in the Chinese market. Chen Yonglan told the 21st century economic report that the business expansion of the invested enterprises in China has been carried out in a diversified way, including green land investment, acquisition and merger, and cooperative operation with Chinese enterprises.

Take planet as an example. When the team conducted due diligence on the acquisition in 2015, it was found that nearly 30% of the company's revenue came from Chinese consumers as the world's leading tax rebate service provider. After the acquisition, oreze not only started to promote and help it expand its market in luxury goods, retail, tourism, leisure and entertainment fields, but also supported enterprises to cooperate with partners in China's Tourism Payment Industry in an all-round way, so as to improve the tax refund experience of overseas travel payment for Chinese tourists.

Planet's business development in China is conducted in the form of green space investment. At the beginning of the company's coming to China, the company has been working in the office of orenze in Shanghai. The company and the team jointly set up the business in China, and also established communication with local strategic partners such as Ctrip, UnionPay international, wechat payment, Alipay and other local strategic partners.

Bridge China Europe market

By combing the past information, we can find that eurizza is an investment company listed on the pan European stock exchange and manages multi asset businesses including private equity, venture capital, real estate, bonds and master fund.

Ruize has the same goal of investing in the international PE business and investing in the international market. In particular, the difference between the investment management team and the investment management team of Ruize group emphasizes that the project is managed by the investment team.

Eurizer's project investment is mainly in Europe, and post investment services are pan global. Several key words can be summarized as "whole industry, holding and cross-border". This requires the team to have its own understanding and persistence in cross-border M & A.

In conclusion, a strong post investment management mechanism and buy and build strategy are the unremitting investment philosophy of eurizer team and one of the unique advantages of the fund.

"Everyone's goals are the same, and the specific methods have their own merits." When it comes to orenze's investment philosophy, Chen Yonglan said, "either not to invest, as long as the investment must be managed to the end."

In terms of post investment service, from the process point of view, the team carries out path discussion and effect evaluation on the possible post investment service modes of the project in the process of project due diligence, that is, the post investment work has already started from the project evaluation.

Take the oreze China team led by Chen Yonglan as an example. As members of the global investment team, they participate in the discussion of hundreds of projects every year, and evaluate the potential business expansion of key projects in Asia. In addition, the business landing of invested projects in Asia is an important part of the team's work.

"Our Chinese team is completely localized and has built a good bridge between China and Europe." According to the helmsman of China business of European PE giant, eurizza and the invested enterprises have high expectations for the Chinese market and are forming more synergy here.