After launching the first-ever public mutual fund in China run by a foreign asset manager last year, Blackrock has emerged at the top of the latest China “power ranking” by Broadridge.
The Blackrock China New Horizon Mixed Securities Investment Fund has gathered over $1bn in assets, according to Broadridge, a global fintech firm.
“Most recently, Blackrock’s China wealth management joint venture won approval to roll out pension wealth management products,” said Yoon Ng, Broadridge’s principal, distribution insight.
“All these developments, coupled with an enhanced brand score, helped Blackrock break the three-way tie and hold onto the top position on its own.”
Strong demand for inbound China fixed-income products also helped Blackrock’s China offshore AUM to continue to grow in the second half of 2021, while its peers mostly saw asset declines, said the fintech company.
When deciding on the power ranking, Broadridge takes into account six key criteria, including China fund AUM, the extent of business scope, local operational strength, brand perception, global investment strength, and assigning China as a strategic priority.
Scores across the six criteria are weighted and tallied to determine the foreign manager that is best positioned in the market.
JPMAM and UBS AM, which were tied with Blackrock at the top in the October 2021 rankings, dropped one and two places respectively.
China Power Ranking – Top 10 Global Managers
| Fund Group | Ranking | Change |
| Blackrock | 1 | |
| JP Morgan AM | 2 | -1 |
| UBS AM | 3 | -2 |
| Invesco | 4 | |
| Schroders | 5 | |
| Fidelity | 6 | +1 |
| Allianz Global Investors | 7 | -1 |
| DWS | 8 | |
| Amundi | 9 | |
| Eastspring/Prudential plc | 10 |
Emerging opportunities
The China power ranking is featured in the bi-annual report, Navigator, where Broadridge also identifies opportunities in private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC), and retail pension for global managers.
Although the bulk of China private market AUM sits in PE funds, VC funds have been growing faster than the former, the report showed.
VC industry AUM grew at a compound annual growth rate of 38% between 2017 and 2021 compared with a 13% CAGR for PE funds over the same period.
PE funds, on the other hand, surpassed RMB10.5trn ($1.7trn) in assets by the end of last year.
Combined with the regulatory guidance in 2018, stronger support from institutional investors and greater avenues for secondary fundraising, Broadridge believes there will be more opportunities for foreign players using the Qualified Foreign Limited Partnership route.
Retail pension products, also known as the “third pillar pension”, mainly offered by insurers and banks, is also likely to offer more opportunities to global managers in China, noted Broadridge.
China’s third pillar pensions currently account for about 10% or RMB1.2trn of the total pension market, but the vast majority of them have been strictly defined and regulated, said Ng.
Since a regulatory framework for third pillar pensions was established in 2018, the governed products only make up roughly 1% of the total pension market, providing emerging opportunities for global asset managers, said Broadridge.
The fintech company expects China’s private pension to grow into a RMB3trn industry by 2030.
