Cheah Cheng Hye


Cheah Cheng Hye is a fund manager and the Co-Chairman and Co-CIO of Value Partners, a Hong Kong-based listed asset management company with a Greater China focus. In 2010, it was the second biggest private fund managing company in the continent. Currently, Cheah and his team manage the flagship equity Classic Fund and other funds of the Group.
Cheah has served as an Independent Non-executive Director of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing since April 2017. From 2015 to 2018, Cheah was an appointed member of the Financial Services Development Council, following a two-year term as a member of the New Business Committee of FSDC since 2013. He is also a member of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School Advisory Council.
In August 2016, Cheah was conferred Darjah Gemilang Pangkuan Negeri, one of the highest civil honours granted by the state of Penang, Malaysia. Dato’ Seri CHEAH is Convenor of Advisory Council and a founding member of the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce.

Early life and career

Born into an ethnic Chinese family in Penang, Malaysia in 1954, Cheah attended the Penang Free School. After graduation, he joined The Star newspaper as subeditor and editorial writer. In 1974, he travelled from Malaysia to Hong Kong and later became a financial journalist with the Hong Kong Standard, the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review.
In 1989, Cheah became head of research and proprietary trader at UK-based brokerage Morgan, Grenfell & Co.. In 1993, Cheah and V-Nee Yeh co-founded Value Partners and started its first investment fund – Value Partners Classic Fund. In 2007, Value Partners became the first value-investing fund management company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Proponent of value investing

Cheah is a proponent of value investing.
While Cheah has been influenced by the value-investing idea that was developed by Columbia Business School professors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd in their text Security Analysis, he adopted the method for Asian markets. In 2010, he was invited by the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Doddd Investing of the Columbia Business School to give a keynote speech, titled "Value-investing: Making it work in China and Asia", at the annual Graham & Dodd Breakfast.

Recognition

Cheah has also been given nicknames by the Chinese media including "Goldfinger" and "the Warren Buffett of Asia".