Facebook Billionaire Chase Coleman’s Recent Chinese Internet Stock Bet

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global made a bundle on its Facebook and LinkedIn investments. Tiger Global returned more than 70% in 2010 and more than 15% so far in 2011 (See hedge fund returns through June). Coleman lost tens of millions of dollars during the past couple of months because of the declines in Chinese Longtop Financial (LFT). Recently Chase Coleman disclosed a 7.3% stake in another Chinese company, Bitauto Holdings (BITA). At the end of the first quarter he had 2 Million shares of BITA in his portfolio when BITA was trading at $11.95. In June Coleman purchased 1 Million shares of BITA at around $7 per share.

There are a few hedge funds that are bullish about BITA. Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital owns less than 2% of BITA. Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company has slightly more than 1% and Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital owns around 0.5% of BITA’s outstanding shares.

Here is BITA’s business summary from Yahoo Finance:

Bitauto Holdings Limited provides Internet content and marketing services for the automotive industry in the People’s Republic of China. The company provides subscription services to new automobile dealers that enable them to list targeted pricing and promotional information on its bitauto.com Website and partner Websites, and to interact with consumers through a virtual call center, as well as offers advertising service to dealers and automakers on its bitauto.com Website. It also provides listing services to used automobile dealers, which enable them to display targeted used automobile inventory information on its ucar.cn Website and partner Websites; and offers advertising services to used automobile dealers and automakers with certified pre-owned automobile programs on its ucar.cn Website. In addition, Bitauto Holdings provides digital marketing solutions, including Website creation and maintenance, online public relationship, marketing campaigns, and advertising agent services. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.