Haitong, Fortis form fund JV
( 2001-11-08 09:49 ) (1 )

An agreement to set up a joint venture fund management company in China was inked in Shanghai on Wednesday between Haitong Securities, one of China's largest brokerage houses, and Fortis Investment Management, a Belgium-based international fund manager.

"This agreement was very well timed since China will soon join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bring wider liberalization of the country's securities market," said Joop Feilzer, Fortis board director.

Earlier, a number of foreign financial institutions signed agreements with Chinese securities brokerages or fund management firms to co-operate in fund management businesses. Their goal was to dabble in China's fertile yet underdeveloped capital market after the country enters the WTO.

The Haitong-Fortis agreement gave detailed explanations of the two sides' investment and resource allocations in future co-operative efforts, middle- and long-term strategies, corporate governance principles and risk control mechanisms, said Wang Kaiguo, Haitong board chairman.

But both Haitong and Fortis Securities officials said a legal framework for joint venture fund management must be established in China before the joint ventures can be launched.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the market watchdog, has been working on a joint venture securities investment fund management provision that will serve as the guideline. The provision concerns the co-ordination of different government departments, including foreign exchange regulators.

An industry source told China Daily he expected the new provision to debut in two years.