Cellphone photo taken on Nov. 3, 2020 shows the Lujiazui area in east China's Shanghai.(Photo: Xinhua)

A total of 37 fully overseas owned private equity fund management firms have now completed registration at the Asset Management Association of China, with the US-based Thornburg Investment registering as a the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) in recent days, China Securities Journal reported on Friday.

Drawn by China's vast savings, more overseas fund managers will come to China to start their businesses as China continues to open its door to overseas players, analysts said.

The arrival of Thornburg Investment, which manages $42 billion, came as more overseas fund managers are expanding their footprints in China, with US-based PE major KKR registering a fund at AMAC in May and another by Wellington finishing registration in July.

The list of overseas fund managers kept growing in the past five years, and Bridgewater (China) Investment Management Co, set up by global leading hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, now manages over 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) worth of funds in China.

Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Friday that despite the growing momentum, it is to be noted that at current stage overseas investment companies are only testing the water and will accelerate their pace of expansion in the Chinese market.

The newspaper said while overseas fund management firms are expanding their footprints in China, global investors are also eyeing the Chinese A-share market.

Data from the iShares core MSCI China ETF, which tracks the investment results of an index composed of Chinese equities that are available to international investors, indicated a net capital inflow of $680 million in the past month, the newspaper reported, citing data from ETF.com.

Analysts said with the Chinese economy staging a rebound since June, the Chinese equity market has become a favorite investment destination for overseas capital seeking value investment.

Global Times