UK quant asset manager Winton Capital’s wholly foreign-owned subsidiary (WFOE) in Shanghai has partnered with Fuzhou-based Industrial Securities Futures to launch an onshore private fund management (PFM) product in the mainland, according to records from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC).
The records show that the AMAC has approved Winton’s Industrial Securities Futures – Xingxiangkaiyuan No 1 Collective Asset Management Plan, noting that the UK firm will act as an advisor for the product.
However, the records do not specify the role of Industrial Securities Futures, whose main businesses include commodity futures brokerage, financial futures brokerage, fund sales and asset management.
This will be the first time that Winton Capital acts in as an advisor for a private fund management (PFM) product. A PFM licence enables foreign entities to develop and sell funds investing in onshore assets to domestic qualified investors, which include institutional and high net worth investors.
Meanwhile, to act as an advisor, a PFM would need to apply for the advisory licence from the AMAC, which will enable them to advice domestic fund management firms and distributors on specific investment products.
With the new product, Winton now has nine PFM funds in the mainland, AMAC records show. As of July, the UK firm manages around RMB 2bn-5bn ($292.8m-$732m) in PFM assets in the mainland, according to data from Cerulli Associates.
Other foreign PFMs that have partnered with Chinese firms to advise on products include APS Asset Management and Neuberger Berman.
There are at least seven other PFMs that hold the advisory licence, including Value Partners, UBS Asset Management, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Blackrock, Bridgewater Associates, Fullerton Fund Management and Mirae Asset Global Investments, AMAC records show.
Mirae Asset
Separately, Mirae Asset Global Investments’s Shanghai-based WFOE also received approval from the AMAC last week to launch a PFM product in the mainland,
The Mirae Asset Tongmao Lianghua No 1 Private Security Investment Fund will be the WFOE’s third PFM product, AMAC records show.
The firm’s first product received approval from the AMAC in April last year, the records show.
In total, around 30 foreign asset managers have been granted PFM licences, with at least 89 PFM products having been approved by the AMAC, according to its records.
At least eight foreign firms have also received the PMF qualification this year, including Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford, Paris-based Metori Capital Management, Oaktree Capital, Power Corporation of Canada, Income Partners, Russell Investments, Schroder Adveq and BEA Union Investment.
