World's top companies in race for China's asset management market

Global giants are racing to grab China's asset management market as the financial system opens up, Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday.

Multinationals, including BlackRock Inc, Vanguard Group, United Bank of Switzerland and Bridgewater Associates, are rushing to apply for onshore business licenses of both private equity funds and public funds in China.

The Chinese market is huge and this is an opportunity that no foreign asset management company can ignore, said Wang Yiwen, general manager of Aberdeen Standard Investments, in Shanghai.

Bullish stock market in Europe and the United States, especially the US, has lasted for nine years and there are some bubbles, the report said citing an expert on private equity.

China's A-share market is currently the cheapest in the world and it is not surprising that foreign investment has accelerated, the expert said.

The global asset management leaders, bringing pressure to domestic asset management institutions and diversified benign competitions, are also eyeing the country's trillion-dollar pension market.

Nearly 84 percent of China's pension investment needs have not been met yet and the pension industry's scale is expected to surpass 11 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion) by 2022, according to data from ocn.com.cn, a Shenzhen-based consulting platform.

Qualified wholly foreign-owned enterprise and joint ventures were allowed to register as private equity fund management institutions by China Securities Regulatory Commission in June 2016.