Sequoia Capital invests in China wealth consultancy

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has invested several million dollars in China's Noah Private Wealth Management Centre ahead of a possible U.S. listing, senior Noah executives told Reuters on Tuesday.

Sequoia paid less than $5 million for about a 20 percent stake in Shanghai-based Noah, an independent wealth management consultancy, Yin Zhe, Noah's deputy general manager, told Reuters.

After Sequoia's investment, Noah plans to expand its network nationwide and aims to boost the number of outlets to 20 across China by the end of next year, said Noah's general manager Wang Jingbo.

"We are considering listing in the United States although we have no time frame," said Wang.

"Currently, we are still in the growth stage and we want to grow stronger before an IPO," she added.

China's booming economy is creating more than 70 millionaires a day, but foreign banks don't have enough products, client managers or offices to tap into the market for top-end private wealth services, industry executives have said.

Currently, Noah has more than 100 wealth management consultants who help Chinese clients to manage a combined total of more than 4 billion yuan ($533 million) in assets by providing investment advice on capital markets.

Global investments by Sequoia Capital, which manages more than $5 billion of capital, include search engine Google (GOOG.O) and Yahoo (YHOO.O).

($1=7.505 yuan)