Bush Corp of the US has formed a joint venture with a subsidiary of China’s state-run Xinhua news agency to provide financial information to foreign companies which want to invest in high-tech Chinese firms.
We are confident that up to $3bn can be raised over the next three years for Chinese companies, Dennis Pelino, chairman of Bush Corp said. There is the appetite in the world to invest in China, in equity, shares or bonds. The question is to find worthwhile projects.
Much of the growth in Silicon Valley has been fueled by the investment activity of venture capital firms. China’s emerging markets mirror the intellectual capital that can be found through America or Europe’s high- technology and bio-tech industrial marketplace, he said.
During the next six months, the new venture, Bush-Xinhua Financial Consulting Services, will research around 700 high-tech companies before putting information on what it considers the best 100 on a subscription web site which will launch in January. It predicts its main customers will be venture capital firms in North America, Europe, Taiwan and Japan.
Small and medium-sized companies in China, and particularly privately-owned ones, have problems obtaining bank credit and until now have been virtually barred from the stock market. With little in the way of a domestic venture-capital industry, overseas venture capital is one of the few ways of raising finance available to them.
