HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by value, aims to start
three new funds on the Chinese mainland next year as it taps into
the country's rising demand for investment products.
"We will see a strong growth and I would be surprised if we
didn't see at least US$2 billion of new funds flowing in," Rudolf
Apenbrink, chief executive officer of HSBC Investments Hong Kong
Ltd, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
HSBC already manages three funds worth US$1.5 billion on the
mainland under the joint venture HSBC Jintrust Fund Management Co.
It expects to receive regulatory approval for its fourth fund soon
and will apply for the qualified domestic institutional investment,
or QDII, quota in May, Apenbrink said.
Financial companies, including banks, fund managers and
insurers, invest abroad using QDII quotas.
To cope with managing more funds, HSBC Jintrust plans to recruit
as many as 20 new employees next year, Apenbrink said. The company
has about 100 employees. HSBC Investment manages US$65 billion in
the Asia-Pacific region.
A boom in Chinese stocks attracted investors to open 47.5
million investment accounts to trade yuan-denominated shares and
buy mutual funds in the first nine months of this year.
The mainland overtook Hong Kong as the second-largest equity
market in Asia this year, partly driven by a surge in stock
sales.
(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)
