Danni Zhu

🇯🇵 Thank you for the great turnout at PEFORUM’s inaugural Japan Private Equity Virtual Summit. 🙏 Thank you to our partners, speakers and attendees: Azusa Owa, Bain & Company for sharing a focused report which cut through what is “noise” vs fundamentals. Megumi Kiyozuka, Sunrise Capital for highlighting the opportunities and challenges in the mid-cap market. Hiroaki Ando, AIC for the clear outline of Secondaries in Japan. Shinji Asada, One Capital for the focused discussion on VC and specifically enterprise software and SAAS vertical. Takafumi Ochiai and David Tan, Atsumi & Sakai for the highlights on the proper legal and DD approach to investing in Japan. A special thank you to: Steve Bernstein for fast tracking my understanding of the Japanese market. Philippe NERI of Institut Villa Pierrefeu SA for the understanding of Japanese culture and etiquette. Thank you to our Administration Partner: FIDUPAR Education Partner: Inflection Point Intelligence

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Hey Everyone! I am excited to share that I have begun my journey as a VC/PE Venture Fellow at VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage and multi-sector investment fund with offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong. I'm humbled to have been accepted into VU's Investor Accelerator program, Venture University, where over the next quarter I'll be sourcing, reviewing, and making investments across Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech.  VU's team is led by J. Skyler Fernandes, Andrew Zalasin, and James Zhang - top performing investors with 45+ yrs of VC experience and a large number of successful investments such as Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, Oculus, Wish, Oscar, etc.  We invest in Pre-seed through Series B rounds. Our initial investments range from $100K-$1M, and we will invest up to $10M in follow-on rounds. If you or anyone you know are raising capital for a startup, especially if it has huge potential, please don't hesitate to reach out! #VC #VentureCapital #VUVenturePartners #VentureUniversity #VCTraining #Startups #Funding #Investments #PE #PrivateEquity

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Excited to share JLL's Bangkok Retail Market Update for 1Q24! Kudos to Tanon Theerasupwitaya for the main contribution to this insightful research, and I'm proud to have been part of the team. The research highlights how the influx of tourists is driving demand, along with booming leasing activities of international brands, especially in luxury and mass-market fashion segments in prime shopping centres. Retail rents are growing, and asset enhancements and renovations can be witnessed in existing retail ventures, focusing on fresh, improved customer experiences to stay competitive. With many new mega projects on the horizon, the future of Bangkok's retail market has immense potential, and we can't wait for the growth this year! 🌟 #RetailMarket #Bangkok #MarketUpdate #JLLResearchandConsulting #JLLResearch #FutureGrowth #CustomerExperience

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Another episode of Q&A featuring Xu Gao, Luo Zhiheng, and Lu Feng: Xu Gao warned that real estate sector troubles, particularly developer credit risks, remain the central challenge, and current policies have not yet broken the industry's vicious cycle. Luo Zhiheng argued that tax cuts alone may not sufficiently boost investment/spending and could worsen debt - fiscal spending to expand demand may be more effective. Lu Feng suggested local govts' overzealous investment and expansion have contributed to overcapacity in China. https://lnkd.in/gw-T23Kq

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Seoul Property Insights, a commercial real estate architecture and data service platform company, announced on the 23rd that it has published SPI Korea Real Estate Private Equity Market Insight, a private equity report covering domestic private equity fund information. Based on the private equity data collected and analyzed by SPI over the past three years, the report contains important information to understand market trends, such as "an analysis of trends and investment assets of domestic and overseas private equity funds" and "the list of new private equity funds in 2024," which includes the current status of domestic market players. SPI currently collects and analyzes data on 3,000 private equity funds (excluding duplicate funds) from about 40 management companies, and the system can look at important information such as sector, investment strategy, original amount established, date of establishment, investment asset, investment asset address, operation period, and AUM of each private equity fund. SPI CEO Kim Jung Eun said, "The ultimate goal of SPI is to become the first platform for everyone interested in domestic commercial real estate investment, and for this purpose, we are preparing a place where not only individual investors but also asset managers, securities companies, developers, construction companies, institutional investors, and space operators are harmonized." "This private equity report is intended to introduce the private equity data that SPI has collected and analyzed closely to more people, and we will continue to report to make it easier to understand the current status of the Korean commercial real estate investment market." Meanwhile, the SPI market insights are currently being distributed free of charge through the SPI website and also provide English reports. https://lnkd.in/gH9NbDFH If you are having trouble downloading the report, please contact us at the email below. hsna@seoulpi.co.kr We'll send you a PDF file. #SPI #Seoulpropertyinsight #realestate #koreanmarket #investment #commercialrealestate #Privatefund #Marketinsight #REIT

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🌟 Calling All Employers! Join the STEM Internship Scheme! 🌟 Are you passionate about nurturing the next generation of tech talent? Look no further! The STEM Internship Scheme, supported by the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) and the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), offers a fantastic opportunity for employers to engage with bright STEM students from EdUHK! 🔍 What’s in it for Employers? - Be the First to Access Future Talent: Connect with motivated undergraduates and postgraduates majoring in STEM related disciplines. - Enhance Your Team: Host interns who bring fresh perspectives and contribute to your projects. - Contribute to the I&T Ecosystem: Shape the future of Hong Kong’s tech landscape by mentoring young minds. 🚀 How to Get Involved? - Offer Internship Positions: Provide I&T-related internships with proper supervision. - Boost Your Brand: Showcase your commitment to talent development. - Expand Your Network: Connect with other forward-thinking companies. 📢 Let’s Build the Future Together! 📢 To sign up, please fill in the e-form below: https://lnkd.in/gXekAg_q

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𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤-𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 By Dr Chong Wang (Associate Professor of Accounting) at the School of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Recent improvements in statistical techniques and greater availability of data have enabled researchers to explore the links between various cultural variables and economic outcomes (Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales (2006)). Examples of recent empirical studies in finance include Hilary and Hui (2009), who document that firms in counties with higher religiosity exhibit higher risk aversion, as evidenced by lower asset and equity return variability, and Chui, Titman, and Wei (2010), who find that the Hofstede (2001) individualism dimension of culture is positively related to stock-trading volume and momentum profits. Following this strand of literature, this paper studies the relationship between societal trust and risk-taking in the international banking sector. Prior literature has found that societal trust is positively related to both financial reporting conservatism and financial reporting transparency, which reduce bank managers’ ability to take excessive risk. Additionally, bank managers in high-trust countries are more likely to exhibit higher pro-social behavior and, therefore, less likely to take excessive risk for personal benefit. Consistent with these arguments, the authors document that banks in countries with higher societal trust exhibit lower risk-taking and that these banks also experienced less financial trouble and fewer failures during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐧𝐚𝐦, 𝐊., 𝐋𝐨𝐛𝐨, 𝐆.𝐉., 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐠, 𝐂. 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧, 𝐃.𝐉., 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗. 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤-𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬. 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬, 𝟓𝟒(𝟏), 𝐩𝐩.𝟐𝟕𝟓-𝟑𝟎𝟏. Our CESEF team members: Lixin (Nancy) Su Wu Qiang Haitian LU Yong (Jimmy) Jin, Ph.D., FRM Prof. Lapman Lee ✔ Dr Cheng (Colin) Zeng Xiaohui (Fiona) LI Lisa Chengzhu SUN Dr Yi Xiang Chi Man Yip

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On Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend a Masterclass on Large Language Models (LLMs) and expected returns by Prof Dacheng Xiu from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. As a Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at SMU (SKBI) Distinguished Visiting Faculty, Prof Xiu shared valuable insights on how LLMs like ChatGPT and LLAMA can be utilized to predict stock returns based on news text analysis. During the session, Prof Xiu elaborated on the correlation between traditional hedge funds portfolio managers' strategies and the application of LLM models, particularly the Sharpe ratio LLM model he developed. His presentation shed light on the evolution of NLP to LLMs and their superiority in understanding the contextual nuances of market alerts, surpassing traditional word embeddings. The Masterclass also delved into the historical evolution of NLP in financial markets, highlighting the paradigm shift in the 1990s with the introduction of models like BERT and GPT. Prof Xiu's demonstration on sentiment analysis and returns prediction emphasized the rapid incorporation of news into market prices, showcasing the potential of NLP and LLMs in enhancing financial predictions. I extend my gratitude to the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at SMU (SKBI) and Prof Dacheng Xiu for the enriching session. The knowledge shared has not only broadened my understanding of LLM applications but also emphasized the significance of leveraging advanced models for more accurate market insights. Thankful to SMU LKCSB MBA for facilitating these opportunities to fellow MBA candidates. For more insights from the session, refer to the comments section by Singapore Management University Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at SMU (SKBI). #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #ChatGPT #research #workingpaper #finance #stocks

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China's real estate market faces a crisis similar to Japan's "lost decade," raising concerns about prolonged stagnation despite government interventions. This situation offers a crucial lesson for Vietnam. By proactively addressing market imbalances and implementing strategic policies, Vietnam can potentially avoid similar pitfalls. Emphasizing sustainable development and economic resilience will be key to navigating future challenges in the real estate sector.

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Here is an article from Nikkei. 'Consulting firms need to come in GENBA (shopfloor).' In this article, there is a comment from Hashimoto-san, Hitachi Astemo who experienced our Deloitte Smart Factory facility at Tokyo. Great Voice of Customer!!! #deloitte #smartfactory #hitachiastemo

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Are we about to see a further acceleration of Japanese acquisitions overseas? Changes likely to be proposed to the Japanese Companies Act in 2025 will include allowing companies to use their own stock, rather than just cash as part of the purchase offer. Despite the currently cheap yen there has already been a 6% increase year on year in the number of overseas acquisitions by Japanese companies and a doubling in value. Japanese companies are sitting on quite a lot of treasury stock because of recent pressures by activists and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. https://lnkd.in/ej5wMkPP

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The most frequently asked question is how to live the life with no job after 45 yet keeping the current living standard. Creating #passiveincome is always the key to #financialfreedom. #ohioproperty is definitely considered as one of the ways in respect to the stability of USD and the appreciation in asset value. #Capstone72 is pleased to discuss with you more! #wealthmanagement #resilience #retirement https://lnkd.in/g6X8uCF4

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📢📢📢Are you a seasoned real estate investment professional with a passion for the Asian market? 🔻 Check the job 👇 out today 🔻 Ping me directly on LinkedIn to chat further. #RealEstateInvestment #Asia #JobOpening #REITs

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📆 The AVCJ Private Equity Forum Korea (https://lnkd.in/gbT7PCXU) will return on 6 September at the Four Seasons Seoul. This highly anticipated event will bring together over 560 of the most influential #GPs, #LPs and #advisors from South Korea and across the globe to Seoul including 270+ domestic and international institutional LPs looking to meet partners, commit capital to alternatives, network with other community members, and discuss the latest trends and opportunities in #privateequity, #venturecapital, and #privatecredit. >>Best rates - 30% off before 14 June: https://lnkd.in/gbT7PCXU >>View the agenda: https://lnkd.in/gE8kaM_Z #AVCJKorea #savethedate #LP #GP #alternativeinvestments #privatemarkets #hybridevent

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🏡 Exciting news! 20 below-market value properties, all off market and ready for savvy investors! With discounts ranging from 25-30%, these deals won't last long. DM me for exclusive access and let's make some smart investments together! 💼💰 Will also start to post more on Instagram so please give us a follow! #RealEstateInvesting #OffMarketDeals #DiscountProperties #BelowMarketValue #RealEstate #Instagram #HomeleeInvestments

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𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤-𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐬’ 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 By Prof. Walid Saffar (Professor of Finance) at the School of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Debt is a major source of external financing for U.S. public firms. Although firms use multiple types of debt to fulfill their external financing needs and experience significant changes in their debt composition from one year to the next, most empirical research treats corporate debt as uniform (Rauh and Sufi, 2010). However, prior theoretical work (e.g., Diamond, 1991, 1993; Bolton and Scharfstein, 1996) and recent empirical studies (Colla et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2020) acknowledge heterogeneity in debt composition and seek to identify the sources of this heterogeneity. Even though bonds and bank loans are major sources of global debt financing, our understanding of the factors influencing firms’ debt structure choices remains limited, partly because detailed data on firm debt structure has become available only recently (Colla e al., 2013; Li et al., 2019). In particular, while prior research focuses on accounting quality, ownership structure, and product market-related determinants of firms’ choices between public and bank debt (Bharath et al., 2008; Dhaliwal et al., 2011; Liao, 2015; Morellec et al., 2015; Boubaker et al., 2017), we have little understanding of how executive equity incentives affect those choices. Paucity of research in this area is at odds with extant literature that documents the impact of equity incentives on corporate policies (Coles et al., 2006; Chava and Purnanandam, 2010; Armstrong et al., 2015). Against this backdrop, we explore how executive equity risk-taking incentives affect firms’ choice of debt structure.   Using a longitudinal sample of U.S. firms, this paper documents that when executive compensation is more sensitive to stock volatility (i.e., has higher vega), firms reduce their reliance on bank debt financing. Supplemental analyses suggest that firms with higher vega face more stringent bank loan covenants. They conclude that, by encouraging risk-taking, higher vega reduces firms’ reliance on bank debt financing in order to avoid more stringent bank monitoring. 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐘., 𝐇𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐧, 𝐈., 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐚𝐫, 𝐖. 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐙𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐲, 𝐋., 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏. 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤-𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐬’ 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝟏𝟑𝟑, 𝐩.𝟏𝟎𝟔𝟐𝟕𝟒. Our CESEF team members: Lixin (Nancy) Su Wu Qiang Haitian LU Yong (Jimmy) Jin, Ph.D., FRM Prof. Lapman Lee ✔ Dr Cheng (Colin) Zeng Xiaohui (Fiona) LI Lisa Chengzhu SUN Dr Xiang Yi Chi Man Yip

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Mapletree is pleased to announce the successful closing of Mapletree Japan Investment Country Private Trust (MAJIC). This is the Group’s second Japan logistics development fund and third fund focused on Japan, after prior successful funds in logistics development and office respectively, delivered strong performances and exceeded their original target returns. MAJIC is majority seeded with initial logistics development properties sourced by the Sponsor, providing good visibility in terms of the Fund’s deployment. It is expected to achieve over JPY 110 billion (~S$1.0 billion) in assets under management, after full deployment and all development projects are completed.   With demand for modern logistics facilities in Japan expected to continue its outperformance, MAJIC aims to deliver a strong logistics development pipeline that meets this demand throughout key cities in Japan by leveraging the Group’s strong on-the-ground relationships and global development capabilities.   For more information, refer to our press release here: https://lnkd.in/g7hZKr39   #Mapletree #MIPL #MAJIC #Japan #Logistics #PrivateFunds #PrivateEquity

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𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰 By Dr George Wong (Associate Professor of Finance) at the School of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. How do firms allocate internally generated cash among its various uses? The answer to this question is important for several reasons. Firms could pay out additional cash flow as dividends, use cash to reduce debt or equity financing, hold cash as precautionary savings, or spend the additional cash flow on investment. How firms use internally generated cash could affect the speed with which an economy recovers from a recession, which is typically accompanied by improvements in profitability. The allocation of cash flow could also provide important insights into the types of frictions firms face in financing investment and how firms mitigate the constraints imposed by these frictions. There is very little theoretical guidance on how the degree of financial constraints is supposed to affect the allocation of cash flow. For example, theory does not provide a clear answer to the question of whether firms facing more severe financial constraints should invest more or save more when they have additional cash flow. Given this, there is a need for empirical evidence to inform theory. This paper studies how firms allocate cash flow by estimating the cash-flow sensitivities of various uses of cash flow. The authors decompose cash flow into a transitory and a permanent component and focus on the allocation of the transitory component, which by construction contains little information about future growth opportunities. They find that more financially constrained firms allocate more transitory cash flow to cash savings and direct less toward investment than do less constrained firms, consistent with constrained firms accumulating liquidity to buffer against future financial constraints. They also illustrate several methodological advantages of our approach over alternative methods in previous studies. 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠, 𝐗., 𝐃𝐚𝐬𝐠𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐚, 𝐒., 𝐖𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐆. 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐚𝐨, 𝐉., 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒. 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡-𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝟐𝟕(𝟏𝟐), 𝐩𝐩.𝟑𝟔𝟐𝟖-𝟑𝟔𝟓𝟕. Our CESEF team members: Lixin (Nancy) Su Wu Qiang Haitian LU Yong (Jimmy) Jin, Ph.D., FRM Prof. Lapman Lee ✔ Dr Cheng (Colin) Zeng Xiaohui (Fiona) LI Lisa Chengzhu SUN Dr Yi Xiang Chi Man Yip

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