2024-07-26
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In the past two years, "weight loss drugs" developed by overseas pharmaceutical companies have suddenly become popular all over the world, triggering a "biological weight loss" craze.
Similarly, some private equity institutions also launched "slimming" plans in 2024.
However, what drives this round of institutional downsizing is not just product iteration or other proactive actions, but alsoRequirements of relevant parties for the standardization of channel operations.
According to Zishitang,Behind several personnel adjustments of top private equity firms that have been exposed or are still being planned，There is also the "figure" of this round of channel standardization.
Obviously, the regulation of channel business may lead to a new "performance" in the scale of many institutions in the future.
The so-called private equity channel business usually refers to products in which some private equity managers only serve as "nominal" investment managers, but do not actually and strictly perform the "main responsibilities such as due diligence, investment decision-making, and subsequent management."
Such products are often accompanied by characteristics such as "low management fees" and "large outstanding scale".
The "Guidelines for the Operation of Private Securities Investment Funds" issued in 2024 mentioned regulating "channel services" three times, including:
(Private equity institutions) shall not transform OTC derivatives transactions into leveraged financing instruments for on-exchange targets such as stocks and bonds, shall not provide channel services for fund sales institutions to sell OTC derivatives of specific structures to natural person investors, and shall not provide channel services for investors to circumvent OTC derivatives trading requirements
The guidelines also mention:
Private equity fund managers... shall not provide channel services for third parties such as investors, securities issuers, financial institutions, other private equity fund managers, asset management products and other private equity funds to circumvent regulatory requirements such as investment scope, leverage constraints, and investor thresholds.
In fact, the channel business in the private equity circle has always been under close scrutiny by regulators, and previous regulatory penalties have also touched on similar operating models several times.
Take a disciplinary decision issued by the China Securities Association in 2022 as an example.
At that time, Qianhai Zhengfan was named. This private equity firm signed 12 "Private Equity Fund Channel Business Cooperation Agreements" with Shenzhen Guocai Lixin Investment from 2018 to 2020. Among them,The latter does not have the qualifications to prepare private placement registration.
Through a piece of paper agreement, a registered private equity fund directly "lends a private equity fund channel" to a "wild private equity fund" and charges the latter the so-called "channel fee."
The most crucial thing is that Qianhai Zhengfan registered 12 private equity products in its own name, and handed over these products and passwords to "wild private equity" for management.
Obviously, the above operations are all "open" channel businesses.
There have even been cases in the industry where private equity fund accounts were lent to external individuals for use.
According to a 2023 fine from the China Securities Association, Guanghuai Investment (whose private placement registration qualification has been revoked) had lent the securities accounts of two of its products toKT GroupLiu Moulong, general manager of the capital markets department, used it to earn channel fees.
It is worth noting that the above-mentioned channel business directly led to previous major cases of manipulating the capital market.
A case disclosed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission shows that since 2019,Liu Moulong's gang and Yan Mou's gang are suspected of using continuous transactions, arbitrage and other methods to, respectively manipulated "Jinchuang Group" andHaozhi Electromechanical"The stock price was high and the amount involved was huge. The main persons involved in the case were arrested and brought to justice.
At that time, this major case also revealed:There is suspicion that employees of some institutions abuse their positions to manipulate gangs to transfer benefits.”
Obviously, this kind of channel "service" provides space for criminal activities of manipulating the market.
In addition to the above-mentioned "poor" channel services, there are also some large private equity institutions that expand their scale through "channel business".
Some professionals in the field "revealed" to Zishitang:
In the past two years, a few private equity institutions have "cooperated" with channel products on the market to increase the scale of entrusted asset management. Snowball has become a common "target" of channel products.
This move is usually called "stacking scale" in the private equity circle, which is similar to "injecting water" into the management scale, allowing one's own institution to occupy a place in the scale ranking, which has a positive effect on the fundraising end.
It should be noted that Snowball's option products were not previously available to retail investors. The counterparties were all institutional investors, and the minimum purchase threshold was more than 10 million yuan.
However, many individual investors have a demand for it, so with the "cooperation" of multiple stakeholders, some private equity firms have set up products to allow qualified investors to invest in a roundabout way as individuals, and have significantly lowered the threshold for participation.
This arrangement superficially meets the needs of "institutions stacking scale" and investors "leveraging", but in fact it has great hidden dangers and deserves vigilance.
It can be imagined that as supervision becomes stricter, this type of "pile-scale" channel business with greater hidden dangers will obviously receive serious attention from relevant parties.
The industry can also wait and see how many large private equity firms that have been "watered down" will reveal their true colors this year?
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