Wo befindet sich das mutige Staatsvermögen?
Text by | Guo Yunxiao, Huang Zhuxi, Xu Muxin, Shi Jiaxiang
Edited by | Chen Zhiyan
The era of state - owned capital in the primary market has long arrived in full swing.
According to data from the China Venture Capital Research Institute, from 2019 to 2023, one out of every three enterprises was directly invested in by state - owned institutions. Even in AI financing, which was considered a "exclusive opportunity" for US - dollar funds, it was dominated by artificial intelligence industry funds in Beijing and Shanghai.
A state - owned capital insider somewhat exaggeratedly told "Waves" that "now there is the shadow of state - owned capital behind any fund."
Ji Xing, a partner at Light Source Capital, told us that the new situation in China's primary market is that government - related capital and state - owned capital have become the main contributors to RMB funds. "From 2014 to 2023, the proportion of contributions from government - related LPs to newly raised RMB funds increased from 20% to 41%."
As Xiao Bing, the executive partner of Fortune Capital, said, "Whether it is the fate of an individual, an investment institution, or the venture capital industry, it has never been so closely linked to the fate of the country as it is now."
However, although everyone has talked about state - owned capital countless times, a common phenomenon is that people only have a relatively vague impression and cannot grasp comprehensive information.
Indeed, the entities of state - owned capital are complex. In terms of types and levels, there are mother funds, guiding funds, and direct investment funds, which invest from different starting points at the national, provincial, municipal, and district - county levels. Although GPs and entrepreneurs seeking state - owned capital investment often communicate most with investment promotion personnel, when delving into the context behind such funds, it is found that the sources of funds may be scattered among various levels of finance departments, state - owned assets supervision and administration commissions, development and reform commissions, etc. In addition to government - owned funds, there is also a large amount of state - owned capital with the nature of central and local state - owned enterprises, which is more strategic and spreads across the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Moreover, there are relatively mature institutions such as Shenzhen Capital Group, Fortune Capital, and Yuanhe Holdings, which are almost the same as market - oriented funds.
The equity investment fluctuations of state - owned capital are also relatively low - key and hidden. Except for cases like Hefei and NIO, most of the details and stories are unknown. State - owned capital, with the largest amount of funds in this era, quietly sits there, playing the role of counter - cyclical adjustment.
To understand state - owned capital, one must first understand its essence.
In interviews between "Waves" and several investors and financial advisors who have long - term cooperation with state - owned capital, there are three core aspects of state - owned capital behavior:
> Policy - oriented, serving the general direction of national development and supporting key industries.
> Desire for investment promotion, emphasizing the role in local GDP and contributing to local industrial upgrading and development.
> Non - pure financial orientation, focusing on compliance and risk.
Liang Sumin, a partner at Wanchuang Capital, told "Waves" that state - owned capital investment often comes with the enterprise's investment in the local area. It is necessary to comprehensively calculate taxes, employment, GDP, and fixed assets, and it is even more strict than market - oriented institutions in accounting. "In most investment businesses, there is a stage called the secretary's office meeting, which calculates the comprehensive accounts of risks and output values."
In a nutshell, state - owned capital needs to balance investment, investment promotion, and risk simultaneously.
If in the past two decades, the most important thing in the stage dominated by foreign capital in China's primary market was to accelerate explosive growth. Through capital investment, enterprises could achieve rapid scale - up to complete overseas listings and reap profits. Now, in the era dominated by state - owned capital, the key to its sustainable development is not the so - called "the state advances and the private sector retreats," but the joint drive of the government, industry, and capital.
However, the characteristic that state - owned capital "cannot be pure" has also raised market doubts about a series of phenomena such as excessive competition in investment promotion and risk aversion. In the past year, these issues have been taken seriously and are being resolved.
> On April 30, 2024, when emphasizing "developing new - quality productive forces according to local conditions" at the Politburo meeting of the CPC Central Committee, the concept of "patient capital" was proposed for the first time.
> On August 1, 2024, the "Regulations on the Review of Fair Competition" came into effect. The regulations prohibit giving tax incentives, selective and differential financial rewards or subsidies to specific operators.
> On January 7, 2025, the General Office of the State Council officially issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High - quality Development of Government Investment Funds," which responded to the problems existing in government guiding funds in recent years and the pain points of local market - oriented investment institutions from multiple aspects, such as extending the performance evaluation cycle of funds, not setting up government investment funds for the purpose of investment promotion, diversifying exit channels, and optimizing the fault - tolerance mechanism.
> The Financial Affairs Office of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee even proposed in the "Action Plan for Promoting the High - quality Development of Venture Capital in Shenzhen (2024 - 2026) (Draft for Public Comment)" to develop "bold capital" for the first time nationwide.
It is not difficult to find in a series of government statements that state - owned capital is clarifying its role in the entire equity investment fund pool. Its core role is to guide, adjust, and boost. State - owned capital is not the protagonist at the center of the primary market but an important regulator and guiding rod, effectively directing funds and resources towards the transformation and upgrading of the economic structure, new - quality productive forces, and technological innovation.
Many primary - market practitioners who frequently interact with state - owned capital mentioned that since the second half of last year, the professional level of front - line state - owned capital personnel has been improving. "Investment promotion personnel who originally only cared about their own areas of responsibility now also care about the business demands of enterprises."
Liang Sumin also observed that state - owned direct investment is entering the primary market in large numbers. "Previously, funds were given to GPs through mother funds and guiding funds, and the actual direct investment only accounted for 20 - 30%. GPs also had to meet the demands of other LPs, and finally, the industrial reinvestment demands of the region might not be met." She told "Waves" that "this situation is changing." At the same time, in order to diversify risks and enhance professionalism, the direct investment fund in Beijing also adopts the dual - GP model, opening up a new attempt for bold state - owned capital.
In the past six months, "Waves" has sorted out and studied local state - owned capital entities in active cities across the country, interviewed several investors and financial advisors who have cooperated and communicated with state - owned capital on the front line of investment, and received support in data and information from institutions such as Wanchuang Capital, Light Source Capital, Yibai Capital, Guangchen Consulting, Taihe Capital, Tianyancha, and Qichacha.
At this reform node where state - owned capital is reshaping itself and weeding out the bad to keep the good, we hope to find the answer to a question by exploring the "patient and bold state - owned capital" worthy of record in the past few years: What are the core factors that enable state - owned capital to fully play its regulatory and guiding roles?
Based on multiple data sources and public information, "Waves" selected 30 local state - owned capital entities and evaluated them from two dimensions: the "boldness index" and the "patience index," resulting in this distribution map of local state - owned capital entities in active cities across the country.
> Among them, the measurement dimensions of the "boldness index" include: the situation of direct investment projects, the cooperation situation with market - oriented GPs, the enthusiasm for early - stage investment, etc.; the measurement dimensions of the "patience index" include: the establishment years, the integration situation of the organizational structure, the consistency and stability of investment actions, whether there is incubation business, etc.; at the same time, the "boldness index" and the "patience index" also include different weighted results of common dimensions such as additional investment in the same project and activity during the market downturn.
> In the figure, the size of the bubbles represents the public capital scale of state - owned capital, the colors of the bubbles represent different regional types, the further to the right on the horizontal axis means bolder, and the further up on the vertical axis means more patient. The unique features and investment situations of the most representative local state - owned capital entities in the figure can be found in the corresponding analysis in the text.
> It should be noted that due to objective circumstances such as the wide distribution of local state - owned capital, a large number of entities, complex investment situations, and limited transparency, it is extremely difficult to obtain the latest, comprehensive, and detailed information. The above chart data may be lagging and is for reference only.
Policy First
Policy support from the top - level is the core guidance for local state - owned capital to enter, develop, and continue equity investment.
The policy starting point of state - owned investment companies dates back to 1988. As an important measure in the investment system reform that year, six national professional investment companies were established at the central level by the State Council, and at the local level, a number of local investment companies were successively established. The full - scale development of local state - owned investment companies occurred after the establishment of the State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in 2003.
At that time, after gradually getting rid of the impact of the Asian financial crisis and benefiting from the global economy entering a new economic cycle, China's economic development speed gradually accelerated, and there were signs of overheating. For this reason, starting from the second half of 2003, in order to prevent the economy from fluctuating greatly and maintain stable and rapid economic growth, the central management froze land approvals and carried out a comprehensive inventory and rectification of various investment projects. Against this background, in order to stimulate local economic growth while avoiding central regulation, local governments began to rely heavily on local state - owned investment companies for project investment. By 2008, when the financial crisis swept the world, under the stimulus of the "4 - trillion - yuan" plan, local governments launched a new round of investment frenzy. Regions with relatively backward economies also established local state - owned investment companies to build local financing platforms to obtain credit funds and promote local infrastructure construction. During this period, a large number of county - level cities established investment entities with the basic characteristics of investment companies, further expanding the number of state - owned investment companies.
On the other hand, the policy foundation of government industrial guiding funds has also been gradually accumulated. Lan Xiaohuan mentioned in the book "Inside the System" that since 2005, the state has introduced a series of policies and regulations such as the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Venture Capital Enterprises," the "Partnership Enterprise Law," the "Notice on the Guiding Opinions on the Standardized Establishment and Operation of Venture Capital Guiding Funds," and the "Notice on Issues Concerning the Exemption of State - owned Venture Capital Institutions and State - owned Venture Capital Guiding Funds from the Obligation of Transferring State - owned Shares," which laid the institutional foundation for government guiding funds. However, the explosive development of government guiding funds occurred around 2014. The most direct "trigger" was a series of reforms around the new version of the "Budget Law."
After the reform, the State Council began to strictly restrict local governments from providing financial subsidies to enterprises. Lan Xiaohuan wrote: "These fiscal funds originally used for subsidies and tax incentives must find new carriers and outlets and cannot lie idle in the accounts. Because the new 'Budget Law' stipulates that funds that have not been spent for two consecutive years may be taken back by the same - level or higher - level finance for overall use." Therefore, industrial guiding funds with local governments as the main players finally started to grow.
So far, state - owned investment entities with "state - owned investment companies" and "government guiding funds" as the two main players have gained legal status at the policy level. Among them, those carriers that have obtained and concentrated preferential policies earlier have more time and space for growth compared with similar entities. Through research on active state - owned investment entities in China, "Waves" found that a group of state - owned capital entities backed by specific regions such as national - level development zones (high - tech zones, economic development zones) and national - level new areas have shown relatively outstanding performance in investment practice.
State - owned capital entities relying on special economic zones
1.1 Yizhuang State - owned Investment
An Important Link in Building the Industrial Ecosystem
Beijing Yizhuang International Investment and Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yizhuang State - owned Investment") was established in February 2009. It is a state - owned capital investment and operation company with the mission of serving the industrial development and technological innovation of the Beijing Economic - Technological Development Area. As of the end of June 2024, its total assets were approximately 123 billion yuan.
The Beijing Economic - Technological Development Area, abbreviated as "Beijing Yizhuang," is the only national - level economic and technological development area in Beijing. In the approval of the State Council in August 1994 regarding the establishment of the Beijing Economic - Technological Development Area, it was pointed out that the establishment goal was to "give full play to the advantages of the capital, actively introduce foreign capital, and establish high - starting - point industrial projects and technology - based projects to promote the technological transformation and industrial structure adjustment of large and medium - sized state - owned enterprises in Beijing."
Therefore, backed by Beijing Yizhuang, Yizhuang State - owned Investment has the characteristics of strong investment promotion and building industrial chain clusters. The most representative examples are its investments in the digital TV industry, integrated circuit industry, and automobile industry over the 15 - year development period.
In August 2009, six months after its establishment, Yizhuang State - owned Investment contributed capital in the form of the right to use 370,000 square meters of land and participated in the construction of BOE's 8.5 - generation TFT - LCD production line. After subsequent multiple investments, by the beginning of 2015, Yizhuang State - owned Investment successfully exited its investment in BOE, recovering approximately 5 billion yuan. Around the Beijing Digital TV Industrial Park centered on BOE's 8.5 - generation production line, a number of well - known enterprises such as Corning, AOC, and Sumitomo have gathered, driving the output value to reach the 100 - billion - yuan level and creating 20,000 jobs.
If Yizhuang State - owned Investment's initial investment strategy was still a relatively traditional investment promotion model, then its intensive investment in the integrated circuit industry since 2012 has, to a certain extent, built the entire northern ecosystem of this industry.
In 2012, Yizhuang State - owned Investment invested 700 million yuan in the form of "fund investment + entrusted loan + equity investment" to support the completion of the large - scale wafer factory of SMIC Phase II B2. From 2015 to 2016, Yizhuang State - owned Investment, together with Huachuang Investment, Wuyuefeng Capital, and Jichuang Northern, successively acquired OmniVision Technologies, an American CMOS image sensor chip company, ISSI, an American IC design company, and iML, an American power management chip design company. In 2018, Yizhuang State - owned Investment, together with the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund