As Chinese entrepreneurs expanded their businesses globally and deepened their involvement in AI, their companies and fundraising plans were once again drawing the attention of international investors after years of stagnation, said Mark Fiteny, the US bank’s head of Asia-Pacific technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) and new economy.
“Investors hold a lean-forward sentiment because they are underexposed in their portfolios to these AI trends in China,” Fiteny said in an interview ahead of the firm’s annual TMT conference in Asia, which concludes in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Global investors have started reallocating funds to some of China’s largest and most liquid names as the world’s second-largest economy has benefited from recent policy stimulus and technology breakthroughs. Yet, these allocations remained below those of 2015 through 2021, Fiteny said, after investors cut back amid geopolitical and macro risks as well as China’s domestic economic challenges.
“The recovery of China tech stocks from their trough is still at an earlier stage than the rise of the Nasdaq,” he said, pointing to the lower price-to-earnings multiples of Chinese tech companies compared with those of US peers that have similar growth rates and profitability. “There’s still a delta built into where things are trading, but it has been converging.”
US investment firms running global funds were showing an increasing appetite for Chinese equities, said Fiteny, who also serves as JPMorgan’s head of global consumer internet investment banking. “Hong Kong-listed stocks and the upcoming [listing] pipeline offer diversification from their Western holdings with a broad mix of growth drivers.”
Many investors from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe were also focused on gaining China exposure, offering well-balanced funding sources for Chinese tech firms, he added.
