2016.08.05 Chen Yanli Views:
CoStone Qomolangma Fund, an excellent PE investment fund since August 2011, has gained a complete victory in 19 projects across 3 fields with 1.4bn investment. Over 50% of its projects will go public, earning CoStone 5 times more than 75% of its original capital of investment.
CoStone Qomolangma Fund, an excellent PE investment fund since August 2011, has gained a complete victory in 19 projects across 3 fields with 1.4bn investment. Over 50% of its projects will go public, earning CoStone 5 times more than 75% of its original capital of investment.
According to Chen Yanli, the CoStone partner, “in China’s PE investment market, short-term arbitrage will not pay off, only investment to industries can. CoStone values quality over scale and speed.
There are three determinates in Qomolangma Fund’s success: first, no loss; second, high-growth companies for profits-making; third, higher evaluation by integrating exits into the capital market”.
First, no loss
Target industries should be in line with China’s economic growth and industrial development. Investment strategies should be promptly adjusted to the market demand and trend. Risks should be controlled by a stable and sound internal management framework supported by sensible decisions, fining industrial decisions, and professional investment capacity.
Second, high-growth companies for profits-making
Portfolio companies should be able to grow in the long run and bring profits to investors. Besides, they should be in newly emerged and attractive industries. We never invest in over-valued industries or companies. It is the superb R&D, marketing strategies, and core technologies of Asymchem Laboratories that attracts CoStone Qomolangma. It is the balanced business structure, support from a first-tier TV station, cinemas, and excellent management team that attracts CoStone Qomolangma.
Third, higher evaluation by integrating exits into the capital market
Potential portfolio companies should be of scale. Small companies with a low industrial rank can hardly make it to IPO, be it on the Mainboard, the GEM, or the NEEQ. PE investment aims to bring portfolio companies to IPO, the safest way of exit.
The above is an excerpt of PE Daily’s interview with Chen Yanli.
Rewritten by Chen Cong, Edited by Li Yunzhen, Du Zhixin
Over the past year, the bull market returned, with technology leading the way.
As I said back in October 2024, the rally that began on September 24 was not merely a rebound, but a reversal. Since then, China's capital markets have undergone a broad revaluation, moving from undervaluation toward fair value.
The Shanghai Composite Index reached its highest level in a decade. The "Yi-Zhong-Tian" trio—Eoptolink, Zhongji Innolight and TFC Communication, three prominent Chinese optical communications stocks—saw their share prices multiply severalfold in a single year. Cambricon's market capitalization briefly exceeded RMB 600 billion. Elsewhere in the technology sector, triple-digit price-to-earnings ratios and valuations exceeding RMB 10 billion became commonplace.
Some investors were greedy; others, fearful. Still others asked me: Are technology stocks in a valuation bubble?
My answer is that what we are witnessing is the hunger and anxiety of an era, reflected in the capital markets. Once you understand this, the current fervor for technology investing is no longer difficult to explain.
Investment has nothing to do with macroeconomics, but everything to do with geopolitics.
China-US relations will shape the investment landscape for decades to come. Geopolitics has played a major role in shaping the hunger and anxiety of our times, fundamentally reshaping the way we invest.
What, then, lies at the heart of China's hunger and anxiety?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is already underway, yet China has not fully overcome the technological shortcomings left by the Third. There is no time to lose.
This is why some people wonder: Why do Chinese computing chip companies command such high valuations when their technologies still lag so far behind NVIDIA's? Why does NVIDIA trade at just 50 times earnings, while a company hailed as "China's answer to NVIDIA" commands a multiple of 300?
To me, this gets the logic exactly backward.
It is precisely because these companies cannot catch up with NVIDIA in the near term that they command a higher strategic premium. The wider the technological gap, the greater the strategic value.
The further something lies beyond our reach, the stronger our hunger. The harder it is to catch up, the deeper our anxiety. If China were to achieve a complete breakthrough in computing chips one day, valuations might actually come down.
Where can one find China's most spectacular natural landscapes?
Much of the answer, I believe, lies in and around the Hengduan Mountains: the Meili Snow Mountains, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Mount Gongga, Mount Siguniang, Jiuzhaigou, and many others. Vast differences in elevation and deep fault lines have given rise to landscapes of extraordinary grandeur.
Hard-tech investing follows a similar logic.
Technological gaps, discontinuities in capabilities, and missing links in industrial systems: a leap in difficulty brings a leap in valuation, and a successful breakthrough can, in turn, bring a leap in returns.
This logic extends well beyond computing chips. It is equally evident in memory semiconductors, commercial spaceflight, and other sectors where China still faces substantial technological gaps with other countries.
It was precisely this conviction that led CoStone Capital, starting in 2016, to decisively focus its investments on three areas: hard tech, emerging industries, and life sciences and healthcare. In this context, "hard tech" refers specifically to important industries in which China faces a technological gap with the United States.
Thanks to this forward-looking strategy, CoStone Capital established an early presence across the full value chains of key sectors, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Looking ahead, the frontiers of technological progress and industrial upgrading are boundless. Nor can the gaps in hard technology be closed overnight. The twin windows of opportunity presented by technological innovation and the development of homegrown alternatives to foreign technologies have only just begun to open.
The road ahead is long, but the future holds immense promise.
As an investment firm, CoStone Capital will continue to invest where the hunger and anxiety of each era run deepest, move forward with the tensions that shape our times, and extend our reach toward the most challenging—and most important—frontiers.
Spring 2026