China’s Huatai Financial Holdings is seeking to become the market leader for offshore Chinese retail trading through the recent launch of its flagship app.
Huatai Financial launched its retail stock trading app, «Zhangle Global», last week in hopes to capture a share of the millions of mainland Chinese living and investing abroad. According to its chief executive Levin Wang, app will first provide access to stocks in Hong Kong and the U.S. before expanding the offering to include Singapore and U.K. stocks early next year.
«We target to be the No.1 player in this market [offshore],” Wang said in a «Reuters» report. «Overseas Chinese investors, no matter where they are, will be able to use our platform to easily buy stocks without any geographical restrictions.»
International Expansion
Huatai Financial’s parent group and China’s third-largest securities house Huatai Securities recently became the first firm from the country to use the London-Shanghai stock connect channel last year to raise $1.7 billion. According to the prospects, 60 percent of the freshly raised funds will be used to develop its international business.
«With the support from the group, we can make [investment] plans in a sluggish market where good assets have become less expensive,” Wang added.
As part of the international expansion, Huatai Financial will look to build a presence in Singapore over the next two years and aims to double the business’s share of total group revenue to 20 percent by 2022.
