Appetite for Asia is returning amongst global investors, most notably Europe, said Federico Bazzoni, CEO of Vantage Capital Markets’ investment banking division, in an interview with finews.asia, highlighting mid-market opportunities as an area of interest.
In November, Hong Kong-based financial firm Vantage Capital Management (VCM) launched its own investment banking division – led by ex-Citic managing director Federico Bazzoni – to tap mid-market opportunities from high-growth sectors worldwide.
«The timing is very good for us. We are seeing a lot of opportunities in the underserved high-growth, mid-market segment, which requires innovative and bespoke funding solutions more than ever,» said Bazzoni in a conversation with finews.asia.
«Our strategy right from the start is to offer these high-growth, mid-cap companies tailored investment banking services that fit their financing needs. Helping these companies, which are across varying stages of the development cycle, optimize their balance sheets to access capital markets takes expertise and attention.»
Target Issuers
On issuers, VCM will be targeting mid-cap firms raising between $50 million and $300 million. Currently, the firm is seeing some «very interesting deals» across high-growth sectors like agritech, healthtech, consumer and electric vehicles.
«The mid-market segment has always been more bespoke and less vanilla, so investors have more diverse mandates than the larger investors, who were going into the very large equity capital market and debt capital market deals,» Bazzoni noted.
«We are very focused on the financial health of the issuers that we work with and we try to be very selective on the deals we’re taking on board as investors are much more careful now and valuation is key.»
Investor Mix
Currently, VCM’s footprint covers Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai and London. Within Asia, its network of investors includes, amongst others, large and mid-sized family offices across Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. And the firm is looking to further extend its investor reach.
«[W]e are acting as an East-West bridge for issuers, investors and M&A clients,» Bazzoni described. «We are very keen to develop our investor coverage across North America to add to our capabilities.»
Market Risk
In 2022, markets were hit by weakened investor confidence in the face of a plethora of risks. Market volatility coupled with Covid restrictions have impacted sentiments and the market trend for the coming 12 months will be dictated by the global macro environment, according to Bazzoni.
But one area VCM sees improvements is in Asia where demand from global investors is returning.
«European investors, notably in Italy, Germany, and France [as well as] large investors in North America, are looking interesting with their renewed appetite for Asian opportunities,» Bazzoni shared.
