UOB Asset Management in Malaysia (UOBAM Malaysia) has become the latest firm in the country to roll out a fund that provides exposure to China-listed companies.
The United Great Dragon Fund is a feeder fund that invests in the United China A-Shares Innovation Fund, a Singapore-domiciled fund managed by UOB AM in the Lion City.
The fund is sub-managed by Ping An Fund Management Company and has around $311m in assets.
The target fund invests in companies that are likely to be beneficiaries of technology, innovation and long-term growth trends, such as rising consumer affluence and growing urbanization, the statement said.
The United China A-Shares Innovation Fund
“We believe the future of China is all about innovation,” Lim Suet Ling, UOB AM’s Malaysia CEO, said in the statement.
“For example, biomedicine and high-end medical equipment are among the 10 key industries identified in the ‘Made in China 2025’ plan, which aims to transform these industries into self-sufficient and globally dominant players.”
NUMBER OF CHINA FUNDS GROWING
UOB AM’s launch comes at a time when Malaysian investors have turned positive toward China equities.
For the full year 2020, Greater China equity funds in Malaysia attracted inflows of RM 1.45bn ($360m), making it the third equity category in the country to have the highest net flows during the year, according to data from Morningstar Direct (Note: Morningstar Direct doesn’t have a specific China A-shares category).
This contrasts with the outflows seen during the first half of 2020 and the year before that.
The number of China-focused funds in Malaysia having exposure to A-shares has also been growing in recent years.
In March last year, Public Mutual rolled out the PB Greater China A-shares Fund, which invests at least 50% of its assets in China A-shares, according to a statement at the time.
In January 2020, Affin Hwang Asset Management launched three China-focused products, including two feeder funds (one investing in UBS Asset Management’s UBS (Lux) Investment Sicav – China A Opportunity Fund, and the other investing in UBS AM’s China Allocation Opportunity Fund, which is a mixed-asset fund) and an ETF tracking S&P New China Sectors Ex A-Shares Index.
In 2018, TA Investment Management partnered with Ninety One (previously Investec) to roll out a locally-wrapped version of Ninety One’s All China Equity Fund, which invests in both onshore and offshore Chinese equities.
During the same year, Principal Asset Management (previously CIMB-Principal AM), launched the China Direct Opportunities Fund. The fund is not a feeder fund and is Malaysia’s first product that has direct access to onshore China A-shares via the RQFII channel.
