The capital's so-called time-honored brands are being urged to learn more about financing tools so they can continue their development and break into overseas markets.
Brands that are known as "time-honored" have names that are famed among locals and that have been in existence for many decades.
However, experts are warning that a long past is no guarantee of a bright future.
"There are no time-honored brands in Beijing using venture capital at all," said Zhang Jian, secretary-general of the Beijing Time-Honored Brands Association.
Zhang said many time-honored brands in Beijing need significant amounts of capital for their development but few want to borrow.
Most time-honored brands depend on their earned profits or financial aid from the government and only four of the 170 members of the association are listed on the stock exchange.
"The stock market is the most obvious way for time-honored brands to finance themselves," said Xie Xuejun, the principal of SALF (Beijing) Advisors Ltd, a privately-offered fund management company.
Xie delivered a lecture about financing to managers from time-honored brands during the main forum of the 2010 China Time-honored Brand Exposition on Nov 3 in Beijing.
The free event, which began on Nov 2 in the National Agriculture Exhibition Center, came to a close on Sunday with a turnover of 50 million yuan.
Some 143 time-honored brands from all over the country attended to promote and sell their products.
According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce, which organized the expo, almost 400,000 people visited during the six-day expo.
Demand for Filipino maids on the rise"However, it is not easy to be listed," Xie said. "The stock market demands a lot in profitability and turnover."
Unlisted time-honored brands can consider other ways of raising capital, he said, such as privately-offered funds.
Xie also spoke about how companies can choose investors and which parts of an enterprise will attract people who want to invest.
"Our time-honored brands need these up-to-date methods to develop with the whole world," said a manager with a time-honored brand in Beijing, who refused to be identified.
Wilson Tso, a brand expert from Hong Kong, said time-honored brands need to cast off their existing values.
"The brands will need to build brand awareness in foreign markets and new media is a good way to do that," Tso said.
Delegates at the forum also discussed developing time-honored brands into a cultural creative industry.
"We provide these new methods of managing a company and hope the time-honored brands will think about innovation to develop further," said Zhang Jian from the association.
