The study, which surveyed 300 Chinese investors with investment assets of $100,000-$1m or more, showed that 74.3% of its respondents want to invest in stock and equity products, including REITs, in the next six months. Nearly 60% of the respondents said that those products were pitched to them, the research noted.
“This interest could also be related to expectations of a recovery in China’s equity markets after the collapse of A-shares in June last year,” the study said.
Cash is still king for now, the report noted, with 58% of the respondents seeing cash and deposits as some of their preferred products.
Fewer investors have preference over other investment products, such as bonds (33.3%), unit trusts or mutual funds (34.3%), exchange-traded funds (33.3%), investment properties – excluding primary residence (24.3%) and alternatives (31%).
According to the report, around half of the respondents said they expect an annual return equivalent to the one-year savings deposit rate plus 5%, which translates to a return of around 6.5%-6.9%.
Meanwhile, nearly 30% are eyeing an annual return of more than 10%. The more the investment experience respondents had, the higher their return expectations, the report added.
“Many well-heeled Chinese investors have made substantial returns from investments in property, equity and stocks in the past 10 years, and not everyone could accept that yields were dropping swiftly in China,” the report said, citing an unnamed relationship manager from a private bank.
Chinese investors are also starting to think about overseas investments, with more than 60% of the respondents concerned that their investments were too China-focused.
“This has been partly fuelled by RMB volatility.”
Among the different overseas investments, Hong Kong is the most favoured market for Chinese investors (45.3%), followed by US and European markets (28.4%) and Asia ex-Hong Kong (26.3%).
“Asset maintenance and allocation are their main reasons for considering investment plans,” Cerulli said.
According to the report, Chinese investors who intend to invest overseas are relatively young and well educated, with many of them having studied overseas. Most live in big cities and have work experiences in multinational corporations or are engaged in international businesses and would like to emigrate or send their children to study overseas.
