The firm received a green light from the regulator to launch the China A Share Investment Fund, the Japan Equity Investment Fund and the US Equity Investment Fund.
This will be the eighth China-focused fund that is approved by the regulator this year. The other funds include those managed by Hang Seng Investment Management, Investec Asset Management, Bosera Asset Management, Allianz Global Investors and Blackrock, according to SFC records.
The launch of the China-focused funds comes at a time when MSCI will be including China A-share stocks in its global and regional indices starting next month.
FSA sought more information from Haitong International, but the firm did not reply in time for publication.
New territory
This will be the first time that the firm will be offering Japan- and US-focused equity funds.
Most of Haitong’s products are Asia-focused. Currently, Haitong International offers seven products to investors: one China A-share focused ETF and six mutual funds, including an Asian high yield bond fund and Greater China-, Korea- and Hong Kong-focused equity funds, according to the firm’s website.
Collectively, the seven mutual funds have assets of around $477m, according to FE data.
The last time the firm launched funds was in May 2016, when it rolled out its Asian high yield, Hong Kong equity and Korea equity funds, according to FE data.
Haitong AM’s Korea fund is one of the seven products pending application for northbound distribution under the Hong Kong-China Mutual Recognition of Funds Scheme. The firm filed for its application in March this year.
It also has another fund in the MRF pipeline, the Global RMB Fixed Income Fund. However, the firm has not received any approval yet for the RMB fund after two years of filing an application with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
The firm is also a mandatory provident fund provider in Hong Kong and offers nine funds under the scheme, according to the firm’s website.
The three-year performance of the firm’s two largest mutual funds versus their sector in Hong Kong
Note: Fund and sector NAVs have been converted to US dollars for comparison purposes. The funds do not have benchmark indices.
