CICC Capital, the private equity (PE) fund management platform of Hong Kong-listed investment bank CICC, has reached the second closing of its biomedicine fund at over 4.2 billion yuan ($648.7 million), said the firm in a WeChat post on Monday.
The new fund — whose name can be translated into “CICC Qide Innovation Biopharmaceutical Equity Investment Fund (CICC Qide)” in English — was oversubscribed by limited partners (LPs) including Chinese state-owned asset managers, China-based pharmaceutical companies, corporates in China and worldwide, other investment institutions, as well as CICC’s ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individual clients.
“COVID-19 has catalysed exponential growth of the health industry in the past one year. Sectors like vaccines, innovative medicines, and internet-based medical care have attracted abundant stimuli, such as technological innovations, consumer demand, and favourable policies to become the major focuses of the capital market, as well as the market’s main driving forces,” said CICC Capital.
The biomedicine fund had raised more than 1.6 billion yuan in its first closing in February 2020. At its launch in late 2019, the initial target for the first closing was 1.5 billion yuan.
The vehicle has already invested in over 20 startups with several portfolio companies entering the IPO process.
Last year, it co-led a Series D round of nearly 300 million yuan for San Diego-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm Denovo Biopharma in December. In August, CICC Qide had participated in biopharmaceutical startup Sinovent’s 1-billion-yuan Series C round. It also invested in drugmaker CF PharmTech’s 360-million-yuan Series F round in July and Beijing-based Mabworks’ Series C1, C2 rounds, in which the firm pocketed a combined 1.13 billion yuan.
Among its portfolio companies is the clinical-stage oncology therapy developer Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Group, which completed an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong in December 2020 and raised about HK$1.35 billion — only seven months after CICC Qide had made the investment. Also backed by Qiming Venture Partners and Hillhouse Capital, Jacobio saw the retail tranche of its IPO being oversubscribed by 298.6 times.
CICC Capital is the flagship platform of Beijing-based China International Capital Corporation (CICC) for its global private equity businesses. The firm manages RMB- and USD-denominated funds with various strategies including venture capital, growth, buyout, fund of funds (FOF), and distressed investments.
At the end of 2020, it employed more than 300 investment professionals and managed over 350 billion yuan ($54.1) in total assets under management (AUM).
