FountainVest Partners is one of the largest private equity funds dedicated to investing in China and focused on companies that are leading in the industry. Spring Capital Asia is an independent private equity firm that invests exclusively in China, and is one of the leading growth investors in Chinese companies operating in the lower mid-market.

The investors have agreed to make an initial investment of US$41.38 million, including an investment of US$31.40 million in newly issued ENZO shares and an acquisition of existing shares of ENZO from LJI in the amount of US$9.98 million.

As a result of the transaction, the investors will hold approximately 28.27% of ENZO’s total issued share capital in the form of a newly created class of redeemable convertible preferred shares. LJ International intends to apply the net proceeds from the investment towards capital expenditures for new store openings, marketing expenses and general working capital. The closing of the investment transaction is expected to be completed during the current quarter of the year.

The BVI company has received commitments to subscribe for 100,142,670 new ordinary shares to raise approximately £50.1 million. Additionally, Chaarat has received commitments to subscribe for 3,147,798 new ordinary shares through direct subscriptions.

Chaarat Gold Holdings is currently in the process of compiling a Definitive Feasibility Study for the Tulkubash Project and a Pre-Feasibility study on the much larger Kiziltash project in the Kyrgyz Republic, and significant part of the net proceeds of the fundraising will be deployed towards developing the required infrastructure for both projects.

The subscription shares will represent approximately 2.1 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of the company following First Admission, which will be 150,181,698 ordinary shares. The placing shares will represent approximately 40.0 per cent of the issued share capital of the BVI company following Second Admission, which will be 250,324,368 ordinary shares.

A year ago, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board objected to the UBHL Group, which is controlling Kingfisher, in its proposal to raise Rs 708 crore by issuing fully convertible equity warrants to the British Virgin Islands-registered company FirStart Inc.
 
The reason was that this would raise FDI stake above 52%, while the maximum level prescribed is 49%. As a result, the company had to lower the FDI level within a specified period of time.

UB Group planned to use the money from the BVI company to invest in various ventures including Kingfisher Airlines, McDowell Holdings,and UB Electronics (in which it holds stakes), and Kingfisher Finvest and UB Infrastructure Projects (both wholly-owned).

TuneWiki  Ltd., BVI-incorporated provider of social media music players and related applications, announced that DOCOMO Capital, Inc. has made a strategic investment in the company in a supplemental closing to its previously announced Series B financing.

The investment of DOCOMO Capital, which is the corporate venture arm of NTT DOCOMO, Inc., will help TuneWiki continue to build new products and expand its current offerings for mobile platforms and the Web. Using its patented technology, TuneWiki plans to launch a mobile game and significant feature upgrades to the TuneWiki social media player.

By words of Rani Cohen, CEO of TuneWiki, the BVI company was looking for strategic partners to help expand into new markets. He said that with the help of DOCOMO Capital, they can introduce lyrics to the majority of cell phone owners in Japan.

Also, TuneWiki announced the appointments of two executives: Lawrence Goldberg as chief executive operating officer and Michael Steiner as director of marketing.

The BVI-controlled Inver House Distillers commented the financial results saying that they “show pre-tax profit increasing by 96% in what has been another excellent year for the business”. At the same time, company’s turnover dropped to £51.5m last year, compared with £57.8m last time – on which the company blamed its “reduction in bulk trading”.

Last year, the company announced a £15m investment plan worked out by its BVI-owned parent company with the purpose to centralise its global marketing operations in Scotland. By words of Graham Stevenson, managing director of Inver House, their task is to sustain this success in “what will be a less favourable market in 2009”.

Last week, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a notice to revoke Evergreen’s waste discharge requirements, necessary for the mill to operate.  The new permit that can be issued by the board will be much stricter, while even the current guidelines could not be successfully met by the company. For the period 2005 to 2007 Evergreen owes $463,000 in fines, and violations of 2008 can make $500,000 or even more. The water board can transfer a permit to a new owner, but water resources control engineer considers it does not make sense as the mill cannot comply with it.

With stricter rules that would apply in the new permit, it is even less likely the mill could come into compliance. A secondary treatment of the wastewater that could be necessary can cost $15 million to $20 million, and that would give buyers a reason to pause, as the mill itself may not currently be worth such amount.

After the two subsidiaries that owned Evergreen were sold to a BVI company, the regional board was notified of facility’s sale to ACE Mills Inc. in December. But the board has not heard from ACE Mills or Evergreen since that time, so it is unknown if this company refused from the purchase of Evergreen at the last minute.

The matter will be heard on March 12. Evergreen in still listed as incorporated in Colorado, its CEO David Tsang has not returned calls or e-mail inquiries.

The complex $4 billion worth will occupy 200 hectares in the Border Economic Zone in Dong Thap province, 150 km west of Ho Chi Minh City. After the approval, the work on the project will start in 2009 and be completed by 2013. One of the proposed projects was building a casino and a helipad in the complex, but both these proposals were turned down by the province.

Huynh Van Sang, the director of the Planning and Investment Department of Dong Thap province, said that they are going to check the financial capability of Giant Group, which is the owner of the BVI company seeking to get the investment license. The Group is asked to send to the province the financial reports for the last three years as well as information about other projects they have invested in.

By words of Dang Van Hoang, director of Tourism Department of the province, this complex may contribute to the cross-border tourism activities between Vietnam and Cambodia.

The BVI Group decided to focus on the strategic expansion in the solar business, and proposed to dispose of its equity interest of Jingle Technology Co Ltd. and its subsidiaries. The disposal of Jingle was approved by the written resolution of the Board passed in May, 2008.

As at June 30, 2008, company’s first solar base plate production line in the factory in Fujian Province of Prc, concluded its installation and testing, but no revenues have been generated, and company’s revenues were contributed solely from IT operations in 2008 period. BVI company’s IT operations were classified as held for sale in the six months ended June 30, 2008, and the gain  from this discontinued operation represented as the below:

- Decrease of revenues from US$336,000 in the six months period ended June 30, 2007 to US$249,000 by the same period of 2008 – meaning the decrease of 25.89%.
- Cost of sales decrease by US$97,000, or 61.78%, from the same period of 2007, which is actually in line with the decrease of company’s revenues.
- Increase of gross profit by US$10,000, or 5.59%, from US$179,000 to US$189,000 in 2008 period. By percentage of sales, the gross profit margin of IT operations increased by 22.63bps, and reached 75.90% in the 2008 period. T
- Decrease of selling expenses by US$25,000, or 43.10% – from US$58,000 in 2007 period to  US$33,000 in 2008 Period, due to downsize of certain technical support staffs.
- General and administrative expenses decrease by US$39,000, or 15.48% – from US$252,000 in 2007 to US$213,000 in 2008 period.

General and administrative expenses of the company in the same period increased by US$700,000, or 102.94%, from US$680,000 in 2007 Period to US$1,380,000 in 2008.

Non-operating expenses mainly represented US$99,000 of loss on disposal of available-for-sale securities and US$13,000 of exchange loss on bank account denominated in Hong Kong dollars in 2008 Period.

The BVI company also maintained a deposit of  US$770,000 with its main shareholder China Biotech Holdings Limited, for the purpose of financing potential investments. Additionally, the BVI company had received US$1,154,000 from China Biotech Holdings Limited for assignment agreement relating to disposal of its interests in BVI registered China Natures Technology Inc. China Technology recorded it as shareholders’ contribution in the additional paid-up capital in shareholders’ equity in 2008 period. The additional paid-in capital did not have any dilution to shareholders.
As a result of this, China Technology Development Group Corporation reported a net loss of US$1,418,000 in 2008 period as compared to a net income of  US$796,000 in 2007 period.

Chairman and CEO of S3 Investment Company, Jim Bickel, also commented on the status of Redwood Capital reverse merger transactions, saying that they are expecting for two of the transactions to close by the end of the calendar year.

Redwood Capital participated in a transaction involving BVI-controlled Dalian Chuming: Nevada-based Energroup Holdings had acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Precious Sheen Investments Limited, a British Virgin Islands corporation which is the whole owner of China-based Dalian Chuming. Redwood Capital was issued 428,095 shares of ENHD as the equity portion of its payment for advisory services provided for the transaction.

In the recent financial reports for Energroup Holdings Corporation, it is seen that through its direct and indirect subsidiaries (known as Chuming), supermarket and franchise stores increased sales 57.8% up for the first six months of 2008 versus prior year, and net income increased 70% to $9.9 million for the 6 months ended June 30, 2008.

Under the terms of the letter of intent signed between the BVI company and Gottschalks Inc., Everbright will purchase about 29% of the company’s common stock – 5.6 million shares, for $10 million at $1.80 per share. Gottschalks also plans to issue a five-year convertible secured note to Everbright for $20 million.