Major opening for cross-border finance

Financial companies in Hong Kong and Guangdong province are teaming up to embrace the opportunities brought by the opening of China's financial sector.

China's first onshore overseas majority-owned joint venture fund management company on the mainland opened for business on Thursday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The Hang Seng Qianhai Fund Management Co Ltd was jointly established by Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank and Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings Co Ltd (QHFH), holding stakes of 70 percent and 30 percent respectively.

QHFH is a strategic investment platform for the Qianhai Authority, part of Guangdong Free Trade Pilot Zone, which also includes Shekou area in Shenzhen, Nansha in Guangzhou, and Hengqin in Zhuhai.

James Lau, Hong Kong's undersecretary for financial services and the treasury, said the number and categories of renminbi-related investment product will increase remarkably following the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock link and the upcoming Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock link, which will bring new business to asset management companies on both the mainland and Hong Kong.

He also expects the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) would also be allowed to trade on the Chinese mainland and that will be "a big step" in the opening of China's financial sector.

The new company has been established in order to grasp such opportunities by providing fundraising, sales and management service targeting individual and institutional investors on the mainland, said Andrew Fung Hau Chung, executive director and head of global banking and markets at Hang Seng Bank.

He expected to sell the first funding product within six months, which will be a balanced fund mixing stocks and bond.

In the future, we will focus on index of markets in the Belt and Road area, while keeping close attention to Special Drawing Right-dominated bonds, with the renminbi used as the settlement currency, he added.

He said the new company will also launch more products in overseas markets to satisfy the growing demand from Chinese mainland investors to allocate their assets globally, but the company first needs to get the QDII in order to do this.