India looks attractive to Chinese investors:CIFM

China International Fund Management Co., Ltd, a JV company between JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management (UK) Limited and Shanghai International Trust and Investment Co., Ltd, SITICO came out with its first overseas fund and raised about US$15.5 billion from 1.9 million investors.

Until very recently, mainland Chinese investors could only invest in their own market and were not allowed to invest overseas.  However, regulations changed last year when the government first introduced a QDII scheme.  As this was largely limited to bonds, the initial scheme was not popular with mainland investors.  Therefore, earlier this year, the Chinese authorities took a number of steps to give Chinese investors growing access to overseas equity markets.  However, at the moment such access can only be made if such investments are registered in Hong Kong, ie, they could be a global produce but such a product must be registered in Hong Kong.  A fund house in China must apply for a quota in order to get such a fund authorised for sale.  

CIFM received a quota of USD4 billion for their first QDII product - the CIFM Asia Pacific Advantage Fund - which invests primarily in Asia Pacific companies whose shares are traded on a securities market in the region (excluding Japan). This also includes India. The Fund was launched on 15 October 2007 and was closed the same day.

Check out Moneycontrol’s exclusive video- an interview with Mandy Wang, GM, China International Fund Management Co.Ltd, as she talks about what is attracting Chinese investors’ interest towards Asian markets and especially India.

By-Piyu Sen