Since July, the capital market has been unstable. First, the education and training market has experienced major policy changes. The stock price of the entire industry has plummeted, and the entire industry has become green. Immediately afterwards, industries such as gaming, liquor, and e-cigarettes were named, and it seemed possible to be rectified. Recently, a capital boss was rumored to be under "border control."
On August 9, a Weibo digital blogger with nearly one million fans said: Multiple channels are circulating that Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital is under border control. As soon as the news came out, it triggered heated discussions among the outside world. Subsequently, Hillhouse Capital responded that the information was seriously untrue and had called the police. Founder Zhang Lei also posted a WeChat Moments in response.
Border control generally refers to a preservation measure that restricts the exit of persons involved in a case, in order to prevent them from leaving the country to evade judicial sanctions. Judging from Hillhouse Capital’s response, it is false news.
Zhang Lei was born in Zhumadian City, Henan Province in 1972. It is said that he went to the same middle school as Shi Yigong, the founder of West Lake University. Zhang Lei is also a legendary figure. He had a business acumen at a very young age. He earned 800 yuan by reselling mineral water and instant noodles during the summer vacation in high school. That was in the 1980s.
He has a smart mind and excellent academic performance. He accidentally became the top scorer in liberal arts in the Henan College Entrance Examination and was admitted to Renmin University of China. After graduation, he joined the Minmetals Corporation, a large state-owned enterprise. In such a company, the work is easy, the benefits are good, and it can be said to be quite stable. But he was not satisfied. He wanted to drive a BMW, so he resigned and went to study at Yale University in the United States and received a master's degree.
At Yale University, Zhang Lei met the noble man in life and his mentor David Swenson, the chief investment officer of Yale University. At the age of 33, Zhang Lei was still a young boy, but with a Hillhouse Capital was founded with US$20 million from David Swenson.
Hillhouse Capital was founded in 2005. Zhang Lei had no previous investment experience and could be said to be a novice. But he was full of enthusiasm. The first investment was made in Tencent, and all the money was staked. At that time, Tencent had already gone public, with a market value of only 2 billion. Many people thought that he was desperate. In fact, he made his decision after doing a lot of research.
It must be said that Zhang Lei is very visionary. Tencent's market value has soared since then, becoming a super giant of nearly 500 billion US dollars, and he has also reaped a 200-fold return.
Of course, the most widely circulated incident is his investment in JD.com. Liu Qiangdong is his junior student at Renmin University, and can also be said to be his nobleman. At that time, JD.com was not large in scale, and Liu Qiangdong was also very petty. He only dared to ask for US$75 million, but Zhang Lei gave him US$300 million. With the listing of JD.com and the increase in market value, Zhang Lei has already made money back.
After several successful investments, Zhang Lei became a big shot in the investment circle and a guest of major entrepreneurs. Of course, he himself has become a billionaire and one of the richest people in China.
In addition to investing in the Internet industry, Hillhouse Capital also invests in physical retail, manufacturing, etc. One of the most successful cases is the investment in shoe giant Belle. At that time, the entire industry was not doing well, and life was not easy for the boss Belle. Its performance declined, its stock price plummeted, and its market value evaporated. But Zhang Lei was very optimistic and invested heavily to become the controller. In the past few years, Belle has risen again and is doing very well.
If we talk about a case of being stuck, it is Gree in the A-share market. At that time, it acquired 15% of Gree's shares at a price of 41.66 billion. However, Gree's performance in the past two years was not expected, and its stock price fell. It is currently only 48.5 yuan, and Hillhouse Capital was trapped.
Generally speaking, Hillhouse Capital’s return on investment is still very high, reaching 52% from 2005 to 2012, more than 40% after 2014, and still 33% in 2020. For For an investment giant with a scale of over 500 billion, it is quite outstanding.
Hillhouse Capital has invested in many well-known companies, such as Blue Moon, Bull, Perfect Diary, Miniso, Xpeng Motors, Bestore, Hexion Pharmaceuticals, etc. In 2020 alone, 42 IPO projects were harvested.
The education and training industry that is being reorganized is also the focus of Hillhouse Capital’s investment. However, it is very smart. It cleared New Oriental last year and reduced its holdings in TAL. It seems that it has been predicted for a long time, but it still leads the way. I voted for Yuanfudao.
The 2021 Forbes Global Rich List shows that Zhang Lei is on the list with a net worth of US$3 billion (approximately RMB 19.457 billion), and was also selected as one of the 25 most influential business leaders in China in 2020. In terms of investment, Zhang Lei is undoubtedly successful. However, he is very low-key, and his favorite saying is "If you don't say anything, you will make your own mistakes."