Hong Kong-based Value Partners has named William Zhong and Gary Guan as co-heads of China business, responsible for overseeing the firm’s various businesses in the mainland.
Zhong, who joined the firm in January as a managing director, will oversee Value Partners’s mainland business and is responsible for all retail distribution and business development in China.
He is also tasked to prepare the necessary applications for setting up a public mutual fund management company (FMC) in the mainland, the firm said.
Value Partners did not provide anytime on when it plans to submit the necessary applications to set up the FMC, however.
This marks the first time that an Asia-based asset manager expressed interest in establishing an on-the-ground retail fund business in China. Since China removed restrictions in April 2020 that prevented foreigners from taking a controlling stake in domestic asset management companies, allowing 100% ownership, six foreign managers have applied for the FMC licence, including Schroders, Alliance Bernstein, Van Eck, Blackrock, Neuberger Berman and Fidelity.
Value Partners has already penetrated China’s retail investors through the Mutual Recognition of Funds (MRF) scheme, where it offers two Hong Kong-domiciled funds: the High Dividend Stocks Fund and the Value Partners Classic Fund.
Before Value Partners, Zhong was the managing director at Harvest Fund Management, where he headed up multiple business departments, including the China retail business, group investment consultant relationships and group marketing, the firm said.
Meanwhile, Guan, who took on his new role as China co-head this month, is responsible for leading and developing the firm’s institutional business in China. He joined Value Partners in 2013 as general manager and has been in charge of the sales function in the mainland.
“Our China business team has already established solid partnerships with mainland institutions. We will deepen our cooperation with existing institutional clients and to expand the network of new institutional clients,” Louis So, co-chairman and co-chief investment officer at Value Partners, said during the firm’s annual results presentation.
Besides its institutional and MRF businesses in China, Value Partners also manages private fund management (PFM) mandates in the country.
“We also target to expand our distribution channel business, beefing up the sales team to cover multi-regions and multi-types of customers, building a unified sales and marketing structure to serve distribution partners, and to explore innovative distribution channels, like internet and e-commerce,” So added.
Assets sourced from the mainland account for 10% or $1.4bn of Value Partners’s total AUM, according to the firm’s 2020 annual report.
Value Partners first opened in Shanghai and now has around 40 domestic staff across its Shanghai and Shenzhen offices.
