Investors Hunting for Asia Opportunities Amid Tech Stock Rout

(Bloomberg) -- Investors are looking to Asia to snap up opportunities following the the global technology stock rout.

The downturn hasn’t impacted Qiming Venture Partners’ investment strategy, according to founding partner Gary Rieschel, who spoke on the sidelines of the New Economy Forum organized by Bloomberg. KKR & Co.’s Ashish Shastry, speaking ahead of the event, sees a bright spot in Southeast Asia, where the investor recently made a string of investments.

“Tech stocks have clearly been affected by recent market volatility,’’ said Shastry, the head of Southeast Asia for KKR. “For us, that spells opportunity.”

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 9.2 percent in October, fueled by weaker-than-projected earnings among technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. They’re among the most visible casualties in a market rout spurred by fears over rising interest rates and a growth slowdown.

Still, Asian funds such as Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd. have been looking for deals to invest in Asia. KKR recently invested in Singapore-based PropertyGuru Pte and Voyager Innovations in the Philippines.

“The tech rout isn’t affecting our tech investment strategy,” Qiming’s Rieschel said .“But it affects how we think about the exits.”

Qiming, which has 17 portfolio companies preparing for IPOs, is recommending the firms go to the U.S. instead of listing in Hong Kong. Rieschel says the Hong Kong stock market is a better fit for $5 billion to $20 billion market-cap companies. With Meituan and Xiaomi’s public debuts, the market doesn’t have the liquidity to uphold companies of similar size, he said.

Lee Kai-fu, Chairman of Sinovation Ventures, took a different view, saying that there are still some opportunities for companies to list in Hong Kong, while the IPO window in the U.S is closing.

The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net;Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Tomoko Yamazaki

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