2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference: How Wanyi Yao Of Apeiron Capital Constructs a Portfolio of Her ‘Intellectual Brainchildren’

The 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference is coming up at the end of the month at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and Hedge Fund Alpha will have complete coverage. Before the event, we have some insightful interviews with some of the managers who will be presenting at this year's conference.

In an email interview with Hedge Fund Alpha, Wanyi Yao, co-founder and CIO of Apeiron Capital, shared her strategy in constructing a portfolio and some insight into her background and appearance at the 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference.

Wanyi Yao at the 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference

Yao is thrilled to be part of the 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference. She noted that the annual Sohn conferences have a stellar reputation in the investment community, both for uncovering insightful ideas and for contributing to an important cause.

"One of the key challenges in a finance career is figuring out how to create a meaningful social impact, beyond generating returns," Yao said. "Sohn successfully blends these two goals. It's fantastic to have an event that brings together investment insights and philanthropy."

Yao's first experience with Sohn was at the Next Wave conference held during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a unique virtual format. At the time, she jokingly attributed her invitation to being a younger female portfolio manager.

"This time, perhaps the invitation reflects my maturity as an older female PM which makes it less competition," Yao added. "More seriously though, I'm really looking forward to experiencing the full Sohn atmosphere in person, particularly after the virtual setup of my initial participation."

Why Yao loves investing

Not only is she excited about appearing at the 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference, but she loves her job as well.

"Investing constantly challenges you to learn new things, broadens your perspectives, and even makes dinner conversations more interesting!" Yao said. "I honestly can't imagine many careers as intellectually stimulating and fulfilling."

Yao's background

Yao is currently the chief investment officer of Apeiron Capital, a growth-focused hedge fund she co-founded. Before Apeiron, she worked at Baillie Gifford, where she served as part of the global equities team and helped establish the Shanghai office in 2011.

Later at Investec Asset Management, Yao was a portfolio manager specializing in Chinese equities. She relocated from London to Hong Kong to build out the China investment team.

Yao was born and raised in Dalian, China until age 15, when she was sent to an all-girls boarding school in Yorkshire, England.

"Being uprooted at a formative age was challenging and at times left me feeling somewhat rootless," she said. "However, the upside is that it taught me to appreciate cultural diversity and shaped me into someone who genuinely values and understands multicultural perspectives. I see myself now as more of a global citizen, comfortable navigating different cultures and environments."

Entering asset management and co-founding Apeiron Capital

Early in her career, Yao didn't have a clear idea about asset management, having applied to Baillie Gifford mostly because their application was simpler than those required by investment banks. At the time, she thought Baillie Gifford was a boutique investment bank in Edinburgh.

"However, during the interview process, I was impressed by how personal, candid, and engaging the discussions were, including interactions with investment partners," Yao said. "When they extended an offer, it was an easy decision to accept and turn down other offers from larger banks. Only later did I realize how fortunate I was to start my career at a firm with such a thoughtful and unique investment culture."

When she left Baillie Gifford, she quickly realized how unconventional its culture and approach were within the investment universe. When Yao went to Investec, she realized that her destiny wasn't to spend her career at large institutional firms. She explained that investment performance often thrives in smaller, focused environments rather than improving with scale, like performance does in many other industries.

"To be honest, I never felt completely ‘ready' to launch my own fund," Yao said. "But I recognized my opportunity cost was rising, and I figured I'd better try earlier rather than later. My thinking was straightforward: even in the worst-case scenario, if I could generate a modest 15% return on my own capital; I could still earn a salary. With this simple calculation and a strong desire to pursue my own investment philosophy, I decided to take the plunge."

Apeiron Capital's strategy

At Apeiron Capital, Yao utilizes a concentrated, growth-focused strategy. Currently, Apeiron's top long positions are On Holding, Universal Music Group, Sichuan Biokin and Emaar Properties.

The top three stocks make up 35.5% of the fund's portfolio, while the top five make up half of it. Apeiron holds 20 long positions and eight shorts, with a long exposure of 96.9% and a short exposure of -9.6% for a gross exposure of 106.6% and a net exposure of 87.3%.

The firm is up 6.42% year to date through March and has an inception-to-date return of 247.49% since February 2017 with a net annualized return of 16.5% since then. In 2024, Apeiron returned 15.42%. The firm's standout year was 2020, when it returned 97.56%.