Meet the Nordic Asia team: Yu Zhang

Please tell us briefly about yourself and your background?

I was born after the initiation of China's economic reforms and opening up of the economy. As a result, I have witnessed over 30 years of China's economic growth story. At the postgraduate level, I majored in mechanics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, and at the same time I studied corporate finance-related courses at the Stockholm School of Economics. After graduating and returning to China in 2010, I have been active in the Chinese equity research industry for more than 10 years. Before founding Nordic Asia, I was the Chief Analyst for Haitong Securities within equipment and building materials.

How did you come up with the idea to start Nordic Asia?

At this stage of economic development, China's GDP ranks second in the world. However, the share of Chinese listed companies in the list of international investors' asset allocation is still in its infancy. In Shanghai, I met Chu Zhu and Yining Wang who were aspiring to start a business to decode Asian investment opportunities to Nordic Investors. We formed a close relationship and combined our respective advantages to fully mobilize the resources in our respective networks. Our goal is to decode and introduce high-quality listed companies that have flourished through reform and development in China to Nordic investors.

What challenges in the market do you think Nordic Asia will resolve?

I think the challenges we need to solve are mainly in the following three areas:

1. Establish a transparent portal and investment channel between Sweden and China and build Nordic Asia to become the most important source of knowledge for established Nordic investors to invest in the Chinese market. To do this we need to establish high quality long-term partnerships with our investors and clients.

2. Provide a long-term stable alternative investment product with higher than average Nordic market returns at significant lower market correlations.

3. Educate and offer the best high quality listed assets in the domestic market in China to our customers and investors to make sure our Nordic Investors can participate in the long term growth of these companies over time.

What skills and experiences do you bring to Nordic Asia and what is your role at Nordic Asia?

As Investment Research director, I am personally responsible for the research on the Chinese stock market. My long-term accumulation of experience and extensive network are crucial for discovering high-quality listed companies and introducing Nordic Asia's investment team at a relatively early stage in the company. In addition, I can share my own experience and train the new team members in China, build the company's research department from a long-term perspective to support our investors and clients with unique research and investment perspectives.

In your view what makes Nordic Asia unique and what is your visions for Nordic Asia?

The uniqueness of Nordic Asia is our team which functions as a bridge between China and the Nordic market. Our unique team is also our greatest asset for ensuring success for our business.

First of all, I have experience from a top domestic investment bank for 10 years. I am familiar with the domestic stock market and can obtain first-hand real information about the Chinese market. Looking at Chinese companies from a domestic perspective, we are more able to predict the development prospects of the target companies to invest in. Compared with a pure Nordic asset management team, we are also more able to accurately reflect the real situation of the domestic trends. This is especially true for our forward-looking judgments on the Chinese market during the current pandemic.

Secondly, with our local presence in Sweden, Yining and his team provides us with significant local Nordic advantages compared with a pure Chinese asset management team. Thereby Nordic Asia has both an extensive network in China and an extensive network in Sweden making Nordic Asia a unique combination of being 100% Swedish and 100% Chinese. This combination is hard to find and provides us with unique abilities to create, innovate and develop high-quality investment services and products by serving our local investors with the best listed assets in China.

Finally, as an excellent software developer and a well-known young entrepreneur in Sweden, Chu Zhu can effectively leverage his experiences and the possibilities of the mobile Internet era to spread Nordic Asia’s core competence and investment opportunities to our investors in the digital age.

My vision for Nordic Asia is to bring these high quality investments opportunities in China to the world and for Nordic Asia to become the catalyst of this mission in the Nordic markets.

Long term sustainable investment opportunities are hard to come by in todays low yield environment. Therefore more investors will need to expand their investment horizons and look east to learn and understand the potentials of the domestic market in China and the high quality companies with strategic market positions in this market. We hope to be a good complement to Nordic investors portfolio in this process and generate sustainable returns to help you reach your long term investment objectives.

Please follow us on our journey ahead and we would much appreciate your support in the future.

Thanks for now and hope to connect with you soon again,

Best Regards

Yu Zhang