CASE STUDIES
Inflated Assets
Grapevine assisted a private equity investor map out a Chinese conglomerate’s diversified assets and capital situation.
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Like many privately run Chinese companies, this conglomerate built up its empire by sucking up funds from both local government’s policies-driven subsidies and foreign investment from institutions with superficial knowledge about the business environment in China. The company told fraudulent stories about its market dominance, high-tech ambitions, and overseas IPO plans.
Our research concluded that more than 50% of the conglomerate’s assets were fabricated, and its business was not liquid and lucrative enough to repay its loans.
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Field Visits
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By conducting field visits in west china to verify the activities in the target’s various subsidiaries’ physical facilities and their land ownership status.
Source Interviews
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Interviewing with sources from the banking and private financial sectors, to gather information about bank guarantees, loans, debts, and pledges under shadow banking (which revealed a significant amount of duplicated mortgages and self-guaranteed bank loans between sister companies).
Channel Checks
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Gathering production and distribution information from the market and the target’s own sales team to evaluate the target’s liquidity situation