China’s qualified foreign institutional investor scheme (QFII) and its renminbi equivalent (RQFII) allow foreign institutional investors to invest in onshore Chinese assets, within allocated quotas. Both Highclere and CIFM AM received their inbound quotas this month.
Highclere received for the first time an RQFII quota of RMB 690m ($109.22m), SAFE records show.
Founded in 2006, Highclere is a long-only international small- and mid-cap investment boutique, which invests in companies listed in markets outside North America, according to the firm’s website. Besides London, it has an office in the US.
Under the QFII scheme, Hong Kong-based CIFM AM was awarded for the first time quotas amounting to $100m.
But this not the first time that CIFM AM has participated in the country’s inbound investment schemes. It already has RQFII quotas amounting to RMB 800m, SAFE records show.
Established in 2011, CIFM AM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China International Fund Management, which is a joint venture between JP Morgan Asset Management and Shanghai International Trust, according to the firm’s website. The Hong Kong-based subsidiary has two SFC-authorised funds, which are the CIFM (HK) RMB Diversified Income Fund and the CIFM (HK) RMB China A Focused Fund.
Since the quota programmes began, SAFE has awarded a total of RMB 614.9bn in RQFII quotas to 196 holders and $99.46bn of QFII quotas to 287 licence holders, according to the agency’s data.
RQFII and QFII bring capital into China. By comparison, the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) scheme, which was launched in 2006, is a channel for onshore investors to invest offshore.
SAFE stopped issuing QDII quotas in 2015 due to concerns over capital outflows and their effect on the country’s currency. However, China revived the programme this month, with twenty-four firms receiving fresh QDII quotas of $8.33bn.
In total, SAFE awarded a total of $98.33bn in QDII quotas to 144 quota holders.
