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A decade ago, United Bank of Switzerland (UBS AG) grabbed the financial spotlight by becoming one of the first qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) approved by the Chinese Government. The move, implemented in December 2002, offered a fast track for overseas investors to channel their money into China’s stock markets. In July 2003, UBS AG completed its first QFII transaction, buying four stocks in China’s A-share market, namely, Baosteel Co. Ltd., Shanghai Port Container Co. Ltd., Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp.
Today, UBS AG is China’s biggest QFII, with an investment quota of $790 million.
UBS AG is not the only company reaping historic profits in China. According to figures from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), in the past decade, QFIIs have netted $144 billion in profits.
Investing in the stock market is an important way for QFIIs to make profits in China. According to figures from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), by the end of last March, total assets of QFIIs stood at $265.6 billion, with investment in stocks, bonds and bank deposits accounting for 74.5 percent, 13.7 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Stocks held by QFIIs were valued at 197.9 billion yuan ($31.26 billion), accounting for 1.09 percent of the total market value of the A-share market.
The latest statistics released by the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. Ltd. showed that in March and April, 12 QFIIs opened investment accounts on the A-share market, while in the previous four months, only two QFIIs did so.
Foreign investors think that as the basic mechanisms of China’s capital market have kept improving, its valuation level will eventually reach the same level as European and U.S. markets.
Expanding quotas
On May 4, Fubon Life Insurance Co. Ltd. received approval for a $150-million investment quota from SAFE, becoming China’s 141st QFII. Later that day, the Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. was also granted an extra quota of $50 million, raising its total investment quota to $250 million.
To date, China has approved 167 QFIIs from 23 countries and regions, of which 141 institutions have combined investment quotas worth $26 billion. The other 26 QFIIs are applying for quotas of more than $10 billion.
On April 3, the CSRC added $50 billion of investment quotas for QFIIs, bringing the total to$80 billion. This will allow more international investors to become QFIIs and increase the quotas of the approved QFIIs. In 2002, when the QFII scheme was first established, the total investment quota was only $4 billion. By 2007, the amount had reached $30 billion.
When applying for QFII status, international institutions used to be put on a waiting list for about one to two years. Now the process has been expedited, taking about six months from application to approval.
Wang Jian, a researcher at China Securities Co. Ltd., said since China’s capital market is still largely closed to foreign investors, opportunities are severely constricted by the approval process and quota limits. According to Wang, foreign institutions with investment in China all have high hopes for the Chinese economy, therefore even though the Chinese stock market has remained weak in the last two years, many foreign institutions still hope to obtain opportunities for investment first, hoping to gain profits when the market improves.
At present, QFIIs are performing well on the secondary market, with mechanical equipment, food and beverages, as well as metals and nonmetals as the favored industries for investment.
Ma Jun, Managing Director and chief China economist at Deutsche Bank AG, said on April 4 on his micro-blog that since China’s trade surplus is decreasing fast, its overseas direct investment is growing and expectations on renminbi appreciation is weakening. All this drastically reduces the growth of China’s foreign exchange reserves and offers a rare opportunity to open the country’s capital accounts and capital market.
This may explain why foreign investors’enthusiasm in the A-share market is ever growing in spite of large market fluctuations.
Relaxed controls
To facilitate accessibility to China, the CSRC is researching ways to modify QFII management measures, hoping to reduce thresholds and expand the investment scope. The securities watchdog is also consulting with SAFE to relax capping restrictions that currently sit around $1 billion. However, Wang said the newly added $50 billion of quotas will not be allocated all at once. There will be a steady process and the allocation may be completed in the next three to five years.
The CSRC will relax restrictions on QFII approval in three main aspects. First, it will allow different institutions under the same group to apply for QFII status. For example, the CSRC recently approved QFII status of Fullerton Fund Management Co. Ltd., while two years ago, Temasek Fullerton Alpha Pte Ltd. under the same group obtained QFII status.
Second, it will allow QFIIs that have issued structured products (pre-packaged investment strategy based on derivatives) to increase investment quotas. Previously, to limit QFIIs from issuing structured products and encourage long-term overseas investment to directly invest in China’s capital market, the CSRC stipulated that newly approved QFIIs and newly added quotas were not allowed to issue structured products, and to those QFIIs already issuing structured products, the CSRC would not approve new quotas.
Third, it will relax restrictions on QFII investment proportions. The CSRC used to require that the proportion of QFII investment in stocks should not be lower than 50 percent and that of cash should not be higher than 20 percent. Starting April 16, China has expanded the daily trading band of yuan, allowing it to fluctuate by 1 percent above or below the parity rate. Before, it could move by 0.5 percent in either direction. This has weakened expectations on renminbi appreciation, curbed massive flow of capitals in a short term and stabilized investment behaviors by QFIIs and other international capitals. To meet the demand of QFIIs to flexibly allocate investment, the CSRC no longer requires that the proportion of QFII investment in stocks be higher than 50 percent, but the former requirement that the proportion of cash should not exceed 20 percent remains.
Today, UBS AG is China’s biggest QFII, with an investment quota of $790 million.
UBS AG is not the only company reaping historic profits in China. According to figures from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), in the past decade, QFIIs have netted $144 billion in profits.
Investing in the stock market is an important way for QFIIs to make profits in China. According to figures from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), by the end of last March, total assets of QFIIs stood at $265.6 billion, with investment in stocks, bonds and bank deposits accounting for 74.5 percent, 13.7 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Stocks held by QFIIs were valued at 197.9 billion yuan ($31.26 billion), accounting for 1.09 percent of the total market value of the A-share market.
The latest statistics released by the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. Ltd. showed that in March and April, 12 QFIIs opened investment accounts on the A-share market, while in the previous four months, only two QFIIs did so.
Foreign investors think that as the basic mechanisms of China’s capital market have kept improving, its valuation level will eventually reach the same level as European and U.S. markets.
Expanding quotas
On May 4, Fubon Life Insurance Co. Ltd. received approval for a $150-million investment quota from SAFE, becoming China’s 141st QFII. Later that day, the Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. was also granted an extra quota of $50 million, raising its total investment quota to $250 million.
To date, China has approved 167 QFIIs from 23 countries and regions, of which 141 institutions have combined investment quotas worth $26 billion. The other 26 QFIIs are applying for quotas of more than $10 billion.
On April 3, the CSRC added $50 billion of investment quotas for QFIIs, bringing the total to$80 billion. This will allow more international investors to become QFIIs and increase the quotas of the approved QFIIs. In 2002, when the QFII scheme was first established, the total investment quota was only $4 billion. By 2007, the amount had reached $30 billion.
When applying for QFII status, international institutions used to be put on a waiting list for about one to two years. Now the process has been expedited, taking about six months from application to approval.
Wang Jian, a researcher at China Securities Co. Ltd., said since China’s capital market is still largely closed to foreign investors, opportunities are severely constricted by the approval process and quota limits. According to Wang, foreign institutions with investment in China all have high hopes for the Chinese economy, therefore even though the Chinese stock market has remained weak in the last two years, many foreign institutions still hope to obtain opportunities for investment first, hoping to gain profits when the market improves.
At present, QFIIs are performing well on the secondary market, with mechanical equipment, food and beverages, as well as metals and nonmetals as the favored industries for investment.
Ma Jun, Managing Director and chief China economist at Deutsche Bank AG, said on April 4 on his micro-blog that since China’s trade surplus is decreasing fast, its overseas direct investment is growing and expectations on renminbi appreciation is weakening. All this drastically reduces the growth of China’s foreign exchange reserves and offers a rare opportunity to open the country’s capital accounts and capital market.
This may explain why foreign investors’enthusiasm in the A-share market is ever growing in spite of large market fluctuations.
Relaxed controls
To facilitate accessibility to China, the CSRC is researching ways to modify QFII management measures, hoping to reduce thresholds and expand the investment scope. The securities watchdog is also consulting with SAFE to relax capping restrictions that currently sit around $1 billion. However, Wang said the newly added $50 billion of quotas will not be allocated all at once. There will be a steady process and the allocation may be completed in the next three to five years.
The CSRC will relax restrictions on QFII approval in three main aspects. First, it will allow different institutions under the same group to apply for QFII status. For example, the CSRC recently approved QFII status of Fullerton Fund Management Co. Ltd., while two years ago, Temasek Fullerton Alpha Pte Ltd. under the same group obtained QFII status.
Second, it will allow QFIIs that have issued structured products (pre-packaged investment strategy based on derivatives) to increase investment quotas. Previously, to limit QFIIs from issuing structured products and encourage long-term overseas investment to directly invest in China’s capital market, the CSRC stipulated that newly approved QFIIs and newly added quotas were not allowed to issue structured products, and to those QFIIs already issuing structured products, the CSRC would not approve new quotas.
Third, it will relax restrictions on QFII investment proportions. The CSRC used to require that the proportion of QFII investment in stocks should not be lower than 50 percent and that of cash should not be higher than 20 percent. Starting April 16, China has expanded the daily trading band of yuan, allowing it to fluctuate by 1 percent above or below the parity rate. Before, it could move by 0.5 percent in either direction. This has weakened expectations on renminbi appreciation, curbed massive flow of capitals in a short term and stabilized investment behaviors by QFIIs and other international capitals. To meet the demand of QFIIs to flexibly allocate investment, the CSRC no longer requires that the proportion of QFII investment in stocks be higher than 50 percent, but the former requirement that the proportion of cash should not exceed 20 percent remains.