UK quant asset manager Winton Capital’s wholly foreign-owned subsidiary (WFOE) in Shanghai received regulatory approval yesterday to launch a private fund management (PFM) product in the mainland, according to records from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC).
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.
In total, the firm now manages 10 PFM funds in China since it got the qualification in June 2018.
Other foreign quant managers have entered China’s PFM market, which include Bridgewater Associates, Paris-based Metori Capital Management, US-based Two Sigma, DE Shaw and Man Investments.
ASSET RAISING DIFFICULTY
A number of asset managers have entered China’s PFM market. To-date, there are around 30 foreign asset managers that have been granted PFM licences, with around 100 products having been approved by the AMAC.
However, only a few of them have been successful in fund raising.
As of September, only Winton Capital and UBS Asset Management, which manages 16 PFM funds, have raised PFM assets of around RMB 2bn-5bn ($305.8m-$764.5m), according to data from Cerulli Associates.
Nine managers are estimated to only have PFM assets of below RMB 100m, while 11 are on the RMB 100m-RMB 1bn range, which includes Value Partners, despite having launched 11 PFM funds, the data shows. This indicates that launching multiple products does not translate into sizable asset gathering.
“Although foreign PFM’s distribution is still deemed weak compared to domestic counterparts, their product strategies have become more diversified recently to include strategies such as multi-asset fund of funds and macro strategies, going beyond traditional equity and bond strategies when they first entered China; and foreign managers’ brand awareness is built up gradually,” said Ye Kangting, senior analyst at Cerulli Associates.
