Our CEO, Anthony Chan, attended the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HKVCA) flagship summit at the HKCEC. It was an exceptional gathering of senior LPs, GPs, and industry leaders exploring the structural shifts, liquidity dynamics, thematic developments and emerging horizons defining private capital in the region.
Key takeaways from the summit, including from the keynote speaker:
Market resilience and repricing — Navigating macroeconomic headwinds affected by geopolitics requires a fundamental approach to valuation. While global capital flows remain complex, the Greater China ecosystem is seeing stabilizing fundamentals, with sophisticated investors identifying attractive entry points and robust risk-adjusted returns in private markets compared to highly elevated valuations in deep tech and AI in the US.
Geopolitics — China and the US have agreed to set up boards to deal with investment and trade separately, providing more stability in the evolution of policy changes in these two critical areas. There are also more obvious signs that foreign investors are starting to seriously look at investment opportunities in China and Asia more broadly.
The new horizon of tech and automation — Breakthroughs in agentic AI, deep tech and advanced robotics may bring China into greater focus. Even though the US is still ahead in chip design and China is only able to access the last generation’s technology, it is anticipated that physical AI will see China have an edge due to its access to power supply, physical infrastructure, manufacturing prowess and vast data from its population. This may have huge implications for drone technology, autonomous driving and humanoids.
AI disruption — The impact on all sectors, in particular on the size of the workforce, is a concern. Going forward, governments will need to carefully calibrate how quickly AI through agents and robots will disrupt employment, and rethink social benefits and safety nets. Businesses that leverage AI-related technologies will soon be able to scale productivity and output while reducing their junior workforce.
A major thank you to the HKVCA and the brilliant minds on stage sharing their insights. Staying deeply involved in the regional private markets ecosystem allows us to navigate evolving markets, mitigate risks, and curate high-conviction sustainable investment exposure for our investors and partners.