China’s much-hyped unicorn funds launched, but get a poor response

Once marketed with great fanfare as an “epoch-making gala for investors,” the six Chinese “unicorn” funds quietly began operations on Monday - alongside Xiaomi Corp’s lacklustre Hong Kong debut - after raising just one third of their original targets.

The six funds, launched to support mainland listings of home-grown tech firms such as smartphone maker Xiaomi and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, originally sought to raise 300 billion yuan ($45.33 billion) from retail and institutional investors. But they ended up with only 104.9 billion yuan among them, according statements published over the weekend, despite a massive marketing effort orchestrated by Chinese regulators.

The shortfall reflects reduced appetite for muchhyped tech IPOs in a market roiled by trade war fears. And investors are showing some distrust toward funding projects orchestrated by the Chinese government.

The funds were promoted as a special opportunity for mom-and-pop investors, who are allowed for the first time to participate in tech IPOs as cornerstone investors along with institutions.

But retail investor David Song said he was not impressed.

“I’m very cautious toward such innovative funds, and I know little about CDRs,” Song said, referring to Chinese Depository Receipts, the instruments overseas— listed firms use for domestic listings, and to which the funds will subscribe.

China Southern Fund Management, China Merchants Fund and E Fund declined to comment.

The other three funds, China AMC, Harvest and China Universal, could not be reached immediately for comment.

Some investors have drawn parallels between the unicorn funds and China's first outbound “QDII” funds promoted by the government 11 years ago.

The six funds, launched to support listings of home-grown tech firms, sought to raise $45.33 billion, but ended up with only a third of it