Global Asset Managers In China: Riding The Waves Of Reform

Participation in China by global asset managers has previously been limited to investments or as minority joint-venture partners. It is now an inflection point for foreign asset managers as China vows to allow foreign players to take controlling stakes and operate domestically in the private securities fund management (PFM) business and other businesses.

The opening up of the China asset management market is happening. Global asset managers can now tap into the RMB 48TN (USD 7.4 TN) market which is still rapidly growing. We see considerable opportunities for global asset managers to grab as structural changes take place in the industry. Notably, recent regulatory change is likely to drive major AUM inflows into NAV based fund products at the expense of bank wealth management products.

However, China is at the beginning of the change and it will for a while remain as a different and difficult market for global players. In this report, we discuss how should global asset managers develop the strategy for their IM WFOE / PFM business, how to link that with their broader group ambition in China and what kinds of support from headquarters are required.