As more New York-listed Chinese tech firms go private to arbitrage valuations between the U.S. and their home country, one man seems to be in the core of it all according to Bloomberg, Sequoia Capital China’s Neil Shen.
In this month alone, Shen and Sequoia have been behind at least five different takeovers – including the recently announced $8.4 billion bid for China’s second largest search engine, Qihoo 360 – and given their large shareholdings in New York-listed Jumei, 500.com, and Tuniu Corp, it’s highly unlikely for them to be stopping there.
“There is a huge valuation discrepancy between U.S. and A shares so ideally Sequoia believes there is arbitrage opportunity here,” said Henry Guo, an analyst at Summit Research Partners.
Prior to co-founding Sequoia’s China-based franchise in 2005, Shen built online travel giant Ctrip.com, and has since sat on the boards of Qihoo, Momo, and E-House, making him one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the region.
His performance at Sequoia has only added to his reputation as the King of rainmakers, and with more takeover targets on the horizon and with Shenzhen trading at 70 times earnings, something else also stands to benefit – his wallet.
Photo credit: Bernd Thaller via Flickr