Tag: qdii

Despite the fanfare from QDII ETF issuers and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, these products are unlikely to achieve the lofty aims set for them. Another fund house queues up to launch a QDII exchange-traded fund and, like FTSE, is intent on repairing its reputation in China. China's original QDII advocate is on the move. Hubert Tse is now with Boss & Young, a top-ranking law firm based in Shanghai. China Merchants Fund Management will test domestic appetite for global resources investments with a new fund, for which shareholder ING is a sub-advisor. The Chinese fund house’s prospectus for its Asian equities product, slated for launch next week, indicates it will manage the fund without MOU partner State Street. The US asset manager has plans to hire at least 50 people across Asia next year, with the biggest headcount growth likely in China. Meanwhile, Chinese investors should buy foreign assets, and ETF/index products are the most efficient way to do so, say panellists at a recent conference. E-Fund and China Merchants are first to launch new QDII funds after a 17-month drought. iShares gains a Chinese name and parent BGI sets up a Beijing rep office. Institutional investors are increasingly questioning the home bias in their portfolios, says Theodore Niggli, MSCI Barra's global head of indices. Excitement over the launch of a local Growth Enterprise Bourse in China is diverting investor interest away from QDII funds. ChinaAMC gets serious about putting together a viable international offering for investors with the hire of Anthony Ho. LJ Jia will head Brown Brothers Harriman’s new Beijing representative office. Customisation will allow fund houses to chase ‘stickier’ assets from high-net-worth clients and change the status quo through innovation. As the Chinese regulator continues to clamp down on the sale of structured products, Hua An's case against the bankrupt Lehman entity drags on. Assumptions that early stage developments will inevitably lead to liberalising capital accounts may prove false, warn fund practitioners. Gabriel Gondard, deputy CIO at Fortune SGAM, is optimistic about China's performance in the second half of this year. A memorandum of understanding signed with the Securities & Exchange Commission in the US makes it the fifth market in which Chinese banks can invest. It's no picnic growing up, and QDII in China is confronting some Darwinian experiences, particularly as it starts to consider the enticing but riskier prospect of hedge fund ... But linking distribution of local mutual funds to custody of their assets may prove a more difficult leap.