Private equity and venture capital firms have invested in about 20,000 Chinese companies, but they've only cashed out from fewer than 3,000, so the pending resumption of initial public offerings is a welcome development, Ni Zhengdong, chairman of the Zero2IPO Group, said on Wednesday.

"Spring is coming for the PE and VC sector, following an industry reshuffle and the resumption of IPOs. The first move for many of these firms will be achieving an exit from their investments," Ni said.

Ni said that in the past 10 years, the return on investment for PE deals in China has been about 20 percent. But conditions have changed, and investors can't rely any longer on the combination of high returns and low risks.