Jiuding Capital Bought Stakes of 50 million yuan in Wiseman, First Foray into the Female Garment Fas
2009-12-21
On December 21st, Jiuding Capital, the local private equity institution that invested the No.1 stock Gifore, announced its investment of 50 million yuan in Shenzhen Wiseman Fashion Co., Ltd (“Wiseman”). This is the first move to fashion garment industry of Jiuding Capital who is keen on field of consumer goods. According to Jiuding Capital, it shall continue to follow the investment opportunities in fashion industry.
Wiseman, established in 1998, is a modern fashion enterprise integrating fashion design, production and distribution. According to Qiuhe XIE, chairman of Wiseman, the company has decided on its sponsor and is now prepared to submit IPO materials in the first half of next year, striving to get listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. There hasn’t been a final conclusion in the board selection of SME and GEM.
It is known that after Jiuding Capital’s participation into Wiseman, it shall first help with its network expansion. According to Qiuhe XIE, 80% of the 50 million yuan shall be used in the construction of distribution network. The company will expand into the East China and North China and shall apply both direct-operation and franchising models.
“We plan to increase 300 outlets in East China and North China and develop Wiseman nationwide into a leading female garment fashion brand in China.” Qiuhe XIE said.
Mr. Xiaojie HUANG, investment executive director of Jiuding Capital commented on the transaction: “The negotiation was really hard. There were a lot of substantial competitors and we won in the end.” According to Mr. Huang, Jiuding Capital first got in touch with Wiseman earlier this year. There were four to five substantial competitors competing for the project. Mr. Huang reckoned that the brand of Wiseman is the core competence of the company, which is what Jiuding Capital is after. Jiuding Capital has been optimistic of the consumer product field and invested several projects in it. Yet this was the first time that Jiuding Capital got involved in the female garment fashion industry. Mr. Qiao Hong-bo, who is in charge of the Wiseman project commented that Jiuding Capital is optimistic of the huge growth space of fashion industry benefiting from the consumption upgrading in China and would continue to follow the investment opportunities in this field.
“The main target consumer of Wiseman is females in the age range of 25 to 30. We will be prudent in the investment of female garment fashion of the same position while continue to follow valuable fashion enterprises with other positioning.”Mr. Xiaojie HUANG said.
Jiuding Capital believes that in the rapid development of Chinese economy, consumption upgrading is unstoppable and capital is to play a more and more important role in the development of enterprises or even industries. Take China’s garment industry as an example, this year, a large amount of garment enterprises including Septwolves, Saint Angelo and Metersbonwe have developed sharply with the help of capital market.
In fact, in the context of economic crisis, female garment fashion industry in the domestic consumer markets is attracting extensive attention and its rigidity is what VC and PE both from home and abroad are after. In the first half of this year, the Carlyle Group also announced its investment of up to 150 million yuan in Shenzhen Ellassay Fashion Co., Ltd.