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.
APG Asset Management, which specialises in sustainable investing, received QFII quotas for the first time, in the amount of $275m, SAFE records show. The firm was granted a QFII licence just a month earlier, according to records from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
This will be the first time that APG Asset Management will invest in China’s onshore market. It has partnered with China’s E Fund Management. Both firms will exchange knowledge related to asset management, pension administration, information and communications technology, according to a statement from APG AM.
“The Chinese economy is growing at a very fast rate, offering very attractive investment opportunities,” Gerard Van Olphen, APG Group’s CEO, said in the statement.
Van Olphen said that the partnership with E Fund benefits both parties. “As a sustainable pension investor, APG brings in extensive ESG knowledge and experience,” he said. “As a major Chinese investor, E Fund contributes extensive knowledge in the local market.”
APG AM also has an office in Hong Kong, where it holds licences for asset management, advising on securities, dealing in securities and dealing in futures contracts, according to records from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission.
Among other QFII quota recipients were Hong Kong-based SSIF Asset Management, which received a $100m quota for the first time, and Duke University, which was granted additional quotas of $10m, and now has a total of $110m.
In the RQFII space, Singapore Consortium Investment Management received for the first time a quota amounting to RMB 200m ($30.74m).
RQFII quotas breached the RMB 600bn mark for the first time in November. Since the quota programmes began, SAFE has awarded a total of RMB 605.06bn in RQFII quotas to 196 licence holders and $97.16bn of QFII quotas to 288 licence holders, according to SAFE data.
In total, there are 226 RQFII and 310 QFII licence holders, according to CSRC data.
