Becoming China's KKR is even harder than it sounds

Kingwisoft Technology Co

15/02/2018 01:32

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions 
expressed are his own.) 
    By Alec Macfarlane 
    HONG KONG, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - ZZ Capital just 
lost its CEO, a veteran BofA dealmaker hired two years ago. With 
a local tycoon's backing, the private equity firm aspired to 
compete with the likes of Henry Kravis. China is full of buyout 
wannabes, but competing regionally - let alone globally - is a 
tall order. 
 
    Full view will be published shortly. 
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/AlecMac11 
     
    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - Michael Cho resigned as chief executive of ZZ Capital 
International, effective from Feb. 15, the Hong Kong-based 
private-equity firm said on Feb. 9.  
    - ZZ Capital International said Cho, the former head of Asia 
mergers and acquisitions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, 
resigned because of "relocation due to illness in the family". 
He will be replaced by Zhang Yun, a 32-year old executive 
director at the company.  
    - The firm was preparing to dramatically scale back its 
operations, and a number of senior executives were negotiating 
severance packages, Bloomberg reported on Jan. 30. The ZZ 
executives were told they would have access to almost $5 billion 
for deals over three years, but are set to leave without 
completing a single major acquisition, the report said.  
    - ZZ Capital International is part of Chinese billionaire 
Xie Zhikun's Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a private, Beijing-based 
asset manager that says it has more than $200 billion under 
management. It was formed in 2016 after a unit of Zhongzhi 
acquired Hong Kong-listed investment-holding company Asian 
Capital Holdings, which was later renamed ZZ Capital 
International.  
    - Cho told The Wall Street Journal in 2016 he wanted ZZ 
Capital to challenge the world's biggest private-equity firms, 
including KKR, using billions of dollars he said Xie would 
provide, the newspaper reported. 
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can 
click on  MAC/  
    - SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS: http://bit.ly/BVsubscribe 
  
 
    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
ZZ Capital statement    http://www.zzcapitalinternational.com/jdownloads/Announcements%20and%20Circulars/E180058A_ZZCapital0209_2052asprint.pdf 
ZZ Capital third-quarter earnings    http://www.zzcapitalinternational.com/jdownloads/Financial%20Reports/EW08295-3Q17.pdf 
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 (Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb and Katrina Hamlin) 
 ((alec.macfarlane@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: 
alec.macfarlane.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: CHINA PRIVATE EQUITY/BREAKINGVIEWS