Industry leaders gathered in Hongkou’s North Bund for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Shanghai S Fund Alliance, an event co-hosted by the Shanghai Equity Exchange and the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund.
The conference brought together representatives from more than 100 alliance members, including national-level parent funds, well-known domestic and international market-oriented funds, local guidance funds, financial institutions, state-owned enterprises, industrial groups, and professional service agencies.
The event focused on identifying new opportunities and challenges in equity investment and mergers and acquisitions.
In recent years, China’s equity investment sector has seen rapid growth, increasingly aligned with the nation’s strategic development priorities.
An expanding landscape of investment funds and private equity/venture capital institutions has become a key driver in channeling financial power into the real economy.
Hongkou District, leveraging its initiative known as the “North Bund M&A Ecosystem Alliance,” has emerged as a strategic focal point for the dual development of equity investment and M&A restructuring in Shanghai.
The district aims to build a leading national M&A finance ecosystem, fostering a collaborative environment that brings together participants and resources across the M&A value chain.
With supportive policies and streamlined services, Hongkou is actively attracting domestic and international institutions to conduct merger activities, generating practical case studies and contributing localized expertise to the advancement of China’s M&A landscape.
A key feature of the gathering was the role of S Fund platforms, which help ease the pressure of fund exits and provide liquidity in China’s trillion-yuan private equity market.
The conference addressed challenges such as complex valuation of fund shares, information asymmetry, and transaction structure intricacies—issues long plaguing the S Fund industry.
Under the guidance of the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Shanghai Equity Exchange released a new “Fund Share Valuation Guideline” at the event.
This valuation framework takes a bottom-up approach to assessing fund assets and is expected to serve as a pricing anchor and critical tool in S Fund transactions.
The conference also marked the launch of “Eskimo 2.0,” an upgraded mobile service platform for private equity funds developed by the Shanghai Equity Exchange, along with the debut of a new “Equity Management System” co-developed with the Bank of Communications.
These platforms aim to improve operational efficiency and digital governance across the equity fund industry.
A highlight of the event was the release of the Post-Investment Management Research Report on Private Equity Funds. The report offers data-driven insights into managing private equity portfolios after investment, a growing area of focus for institutional investors.
Several industry experts delivered keynote speeches. A panel discussion titled “The Development and Innovation of Chinese S Funds” featured vibrant debate on the domestic S Fund landscape.
Panelists shared projections, policy considerations, and innovative practices for strengthening China’s presence in the global secondary market.
By bringing together policymakers, fund managers, legal experts, and corporate leaders, the 2025 Shanghai S Fund Alliance Annual Meeting further solidified North Bund’s status as a hub for equity investment innovation and financial reform.
Hongkou District continues to promote a business environment that supports high-quality capital flows, driving forward the integration of finance and industrial development in Shanghai.