Vickers Venture sees about 130x return from Chinese firm’s IPO

Update (Oct. 29, 7:20 p.m. SGT): This article was updated to add details about Vicker Ventures investment in Jing-Jin Electric. 

Vickers Venture Partners said that it saw a return of about 129x from its portfolio firm Jing-Jin Electric, which went public on Shanghai’s Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR) market recently.

Vickers Venture made its first investment in the manufacturer of electric motor systems about 13 years ago. It has invested US$900,000 in the company at a valuation of US$3.2 million in 2008, the company told Tech in Asia.

The Chinese firm is the second unicorn in the venture capital firm’s portfolio to list on the STAR market after Hillstone Network, a China-based internet security firm that went public on the STAR market in September 2019.

Photo credit: Jing-Jin Electric

Jing-Jin Electric completed its first day of trading, with its shares gaining 28.5%. The issue price was about US$2.15 and the initial public offering was over 2,200x oversubscribed. The stock was trading at 17.70 yuan (US$2.77) at close, pushing the company’s market capitalization to US$1.63 billion.

As per earlier data from Preqin, the distributed paid-in capital (DPI) – the ratio of money distributed to limited partners or investors by the fund – for Vickers Venture’s Fund 2 through to 4 was 104.3%, 16.9%, and 5.1%, respectively. However, Tech in Asia requested Vickers Ventures for the latest DPI figures for its funds, which weren’t disclosed.

Vickers Venture said that it had led Jing-Jin Electric’s first round of investments, helping the startup establish its Beijing office. Since then, the Chinese firm – which was founded 2008 – has grown to become the first company to win orders from major international automotive manufacturers in Europe to make motor engines of hybrid cars.

Currently, Jingjin Electric supports high-end manufacturing companies in China, with bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong Heze, and the US.

“We knew that Jingjin Electric had a great team with the top experts in the motor engine design for hybrid cars and we believed in the potential market size of hybrid motor engines and clean energy, as well as what Jingjin Electric could bring in the battle against climate change,” said Finian Tan, founder and chairman of Vickers Venture Partners.

The executive said Jingjin Electric is the seventh company in Vickers Venture’s portfolio that has reached unicorn levels.