China's super-rich upbeat on domestic investment opportunities: report

BEIJING - China's super-rich community are growing steadily, and upbeat on domestic opportunities while allocating their assets, a report showed.

The number of China's high net worth individuals (HNWIs) with investable assets topping 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) reached 1.97 million by end-2018, according to the 2019 China Private Wealth Report released by global consultancy Bain & Company and China Merchants Bank.

They boasted total investable assets worth 61 trillion yuan, registering a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent.

A total of 23 provincial regions had over 20,000 local HNWIs by end-2018, while Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong each had over 100,000 HNWIs.

The Chinese super-rich are shifting their investment focus to the domestic market as the opening-up of capital markets and other factors create fresh opportunities, the report said.

The private banking clients are taking more balanced assets allocation and showing strong intention to seek professional asset management services, according to Jennifer Zeng, who is a partner in Bain & Company's Hong Kong office and leads Bain's Greater China Financial Services practice.

The report predicts that China's private wealth market will maintain steady growth in 2019, with total HNWIs reaching about 2.2 million and their wealth totaling 68 trillion yuan, both up 11 percent from 2018.