Cheng Houbo of Shenzhen Oriental Fortune Capital Co Ltd and Zhang Fan of Sequoia Capital China were yesterday awarded the best venture capitalists of 2007.

The organizers, China Business News and Holyzone media, also awarded Yan Yan of SAIF Partners and Tina Ju of KPCB China Fund as the best private equity managers.

Shenzhen-based Oriental Fortune Capital Co Ltd is one of the first venture capital companies in a partnership structure since China revised the laws to allow investment firms to set up partnerships this year.

The firm, which currently runs a renminbi fund worth 900 million yuan and a $50 million worth of overseas fund, is the largest venture capital under a partnership structure since the enactment of the new Partnership Law in July.

The amended law, which grants venture capital fund managers more incentives, has greatly boosted China's venture capital and private equity industry.

"As one of the forerunners of local venture capitalists in partnership structure, we face a lot of new challenges on legal and financial fronts in operating such a fund," said Cheng Houbo, founder-partner of the firm.

But Cheng said China's development of a multi-level capital market is providing local venture capitalists abundant opportunities.

Ample money supply on the mainland and the fact that a second board is likely to be launched in the stock market next year, providing a perfect platform for investment firms, has greatly boosted renminbi funds.

"There's no difference between operating local and overseas venture capital. Our investment also focuses on companies with high growth potential and is not limited to a specific industry," Cheng told China Daily.

The company currently has seven limited partners and two general partners, said Cheng.

Zhang Fan, creator and partner of Sequoia Capital China, said Sequoia has plans to set up a renminbi fund though a new merger and acquisition law last September, which may dampen non-renminbi funds' investment enthusiasm in China.

"Renminbi funds are a recent phenomenon, and there are no success stories for us to follow," Zhang said.

According to the China Quarterly Venture Capital Report released by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne, venture capital firms in the third quarter invested in 59 deals, with the total investment reaching $677 million, a 5 percent increase over the $645 million invested in 76 deals during the same period last year.

(China Daily November 23, 2007)