Leading Dutch manager tops up QFII quota

China granted Netherlands-based APG AM an additional $300m quota under the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) scheme, boosting the fund’s total to $575m, according to records from the State Administration for Foreign Exchange.

APG AM first received its QFII quota in December 2017, marking the first time it started investing in onshore Chinese equities on behalf of its pension fund clients.

The fund manager specialises in sustainable investing and had €470bn ($534.6bn) in AUM as at the end of last year. It is the sixth-largest asset owner globally and the second-largest in Europe after Norway’s Government Pension Fund, according to a Willis Towers Watson report.

APG AM’s investments in China are made in collaboration with Beijing-based E Fund; both firms exchange knowledge related to asset management, pension administration, information and communications technology.

The firms formed a strategic alliance in 2016 and last year launched a fund on the mainland that focuses on sustainable investing, according to a joint statement at the time.

For RQFII, the renminbi equivalent of QFII, no new quotas were given in November, according to SAFE.

Since the quota programmes began, SAFE has awarded a total of RMB 642.67bn ($93.38bn) in RQFII quotas to 203 licence holders, and $100.56bn in QFII quotas to 286 licence holders, according to SAFE.