Why Hillhouse Investment: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Hillhouse Investment Overview

Hillhouse Investment is a private equity firm which originated in East Asia.

Lei Zhang founded the firm in 2005. Its initial seed capital came from Yale University endowment and invests across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

Hillhouse has offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong with additional offices in London and New York.

They manage capital for institutional clients such as family offices, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, and university endowments.

The sectors they typically invest in are financial services, technology, healthcare, and consumer.

Hillhouse experienced rapid growth due to its strong track record, with up to 52% annualized returns from inception until 2021, and continued impressive performance as they scaled.

Hillhouse Investment AUM

According to the latest regulatory filings, Hillhouse Investment has $62.0 BB in assets under management as of 2023-03-31.

Hillhouse Investment Interview Process & Questions

Despite the changes in the interview changes for each candidate, the general nature of the process stays the same for the most part. In fact, you can anticipate the following:

• Interview rounds: 4-6
• Initial interviews are supervised by junior professionals, while later rounds are handled by more senior folks
• Unless it’s on-campus or on-cycle recruiting, expect that the entire process will last for multiple weeks

Get ready to answer a mixture of behavioral questions, technical questions, and fit questions when you interview at Hillhouse Investment.

To help you with preparation, I’ve created a Growth Equity Interview Guide. Feel free to check it out.

Why Hillhouse Investment

One of the questions you must prepare for is the “Why this firm” question.

If you’ve met employees at the firm during your networking efforts, make sure to mention them and how their experiences and testimonies helped in choosing their firm.

Also, do your homework and research the firm. You can try listening to interviews with its founders, management team, and investors to get to know them better.

For starters, here’s Lei Zhang, Chairman & Founder of Hillhouse Investment, at Global Financial Leaders’ Summit:

Hillhouse Investment Case Study

Communication skills and technical knowledge are two traits that investment firms highly value. To evaluate these, firms like Hillhouse Investment ask candidates to perform case studies.

Most case studies will have you do financial modeling and investment recommendations. But for junior roles, a cold calling case study may also be part of the process.

I’ve discussed case studies in great detail inside my Growth Equity Interview Guide course.

Hillhouse Investment Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, analysts & associates at Hillhouse Investment have an estimated total pay of $155,061 and $134,035 per year, respectively. These figures may vary depending on many factors such as location, experience, and so on.

Analyst

Associate

Hillhouse Investment Careers, Jobs, & Internships

Feel free to visit our job board to stay updated with Hillhouse Investment’s opportunities. We also feature open roles for other similar firms.

Hillhouse Investment Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase, Hillhouse Investment has made 426 investments across two funds. Some of their notable deals include Hystar, Capcon, and GenScript ProBio.

Notable Transaction: Belle International

Belle International is a retailer business in China which produces footwear, sportswear, and apparel. Company-owned footwear brands include Staccato, Belle, Joy & Peace, Tata, Senda, and many more.

In April 2017, a consortium consisting of Mr. Yu Wu and Mr. Sheng Fang (Executive Directors of Belle), CDH Investments, and Hillhouse submitted a proposal to the board of directors at Belle which if approved will result in the privatization of Belle by way of Scheme of Arrangement.

Under the said Proposal, Belle International shareholders will be paid a cancellation consideration of HK$6.30 per share in cash. 

Next Steps

If you decide to send your application and build your investing career at Hillhouse Investment, I would highly recommend that you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide first before attending interviews.

Growth Equity Interview Guide helps professionals get a good grasp of topics that are typically covered during interviews such as financial modeling, case studies, and more. Check it out and start learning today!