From Sept, 20 to Sept. 21, 2018, the 2nd China Urban Regeneration Forum was launched in Beijing. Based on the theme of “Innovation Changes Cities, Technology Reconstructs Value”, this forum gathered domestic and overseas top industry experts to share characteristics and experience of domestic and overseas urban regeneration, and add the latest ideas and concepts to the forum.

Mr. Xu Yafeng, president of WINS Investment, attended this forum upon invitation and participated in the roundtable forum entitled “Is Capital an Angel or a Demon to Urban Regeneration?” In the opinion of President Xu, the capital party can be positioned as an “accelerator” in the field of urban regeneration. When a project of urban regeneration faces a fund pressure, a professional capital party can make a rapid judgment to the market and effectively dedicate itself to project operation.

At the forum, President Xu first made an introduction to everyone present: WINS is a PE institution with a background of developer and a history of 9 years. Development is the inherently advantageous business of WINS and is also the business WINS is very familiar with and very proficient in. In equity investment and financing capacity, WINS has accumulated very rich experience.

With regard to dedication to the field of urban regeneration, President Xu has positioned several stakeholders in the market: 1) The operation parties of assets: The operation parties are now developing toward the field of diversification and specialization. In office, apartment, cultural creativity park, and even the old-city reconstruction and demolishment, the operation parties should carry out refined management in the fields that they are proficient in. 2) The content parties. In contrast with previous land acquisition, development and sales, urban regeneration needs to consider the core content that it tries to present. 3) The capital parties. President Xu positioned the capital parties as the “accelerator of urban regeneration”. 

Mentioning the functions of the capital parties for urban regeneration, President Xu conducted in-depth analysis. First, in the early investment phase, a lot of fund is needed although the assets have not yet yielded any business income. Under such a circumstance, a very professional investor is required, with a rapid and accurate judgment and prediction toward the future market. In addition, potential risks and the process of actual operation should also be taken into consideration. Therefore, a PE institution with a flexible trading model, quite professional knowledge and rich experience in capital operation, just like WINS, is required to dedicate itself to this phase, make a rapid judgment toward the future market, invest a certain scale of fund, eventually promote the trading, and contribute value to follow-up asset value addition. Next, after the asset operation lasts for two to three years and a relatively stable investment return begins to emerge, the demand for funds would always have three attributes: a large quantity, cheapness and long term. In this phase, the most ideal means to acquire such funds is asset securitization. Take Shanghai No. 8 Bridge Project invested by WINS for an example. After acquiring the assets, WINS Investment conducted all-round analysis and estimation toward the cash flow and liquidity of the project and determined the pool entry assets of this project, with the help of the operation and management team, and as the trading consultant and chief coordinator of asset supported securities, and also conducted repeated discussions about the trading structure, product structure, issuance scale, etc. and worked out an innovative solution, and formed a sustainable development model for the assets themselves via asset securitization products.  Therefore, in both the PE fund model at the time of front-end investment and the model of asset securitization at the time of rear-end withdrawal, WINS played a very typical “accelerator” role.

As pointed out by President Xu, in the future, operation will play a more and more important role, and urban regeneration will be a process of long-term operation all the more. In this industry, “an open Android system” is indeed very important.