One of China's best fund managers is looking to be the first among peers to set up shop in the U.S. despite ongoing trade tensions.
China Universal Asset Management, the $100-billion fund manager behind some of the nation's best-performing equity funds, plans to open a wholly owned U.S. unit this year, pending regulatory approvals. They are there to raise money for investments in Chinese firms, according to its Chief Executive Officer Zhang Hui.
It plans to sell products linked to Chinese-listed stocks to U.S. investors and boost research on the U.S. market so it can buy shares traded in New York, especially China-related ones.
«We also hope that one day we ourselves will become a sizable investor in the overseas markets,» said Zhang, who was quoted in «Bloomberg» (behind paywall).
Homegrown Advantage
While foreign asset managers have set up onshore units to increase exposure to Chinese stocks, smaller players have limited access to China's market, which has more than $14 trillion in assets.
Zhang says his firm understands China and thus offer better long-term returns than rivals partly due to its homegrown portfolio managers. Universal Asset managed about 700 billion yuan (S$137.97 billion) in assets as at March and this month was ranked seventh by assets among 142 Chinese peers tracked by online information platform East Money Information.
