[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s Mirae Asset Management said on Nov. 21 it has acquired a wholly foreign-owned enterprise license in China, stepping up its efforts to make a foray in the world’s second-largest economy.

The firm said its WFOE is registered as a private fund manager with the Asset Management Association of China, the local self-regulating body. It is the 16th foreign company to obtain the license and the first Korean company to be registered as a PEF manager.
 

China opened up its funds market in June 2016, granting licenses to subsidiaries of foreign asset managers in Shanghai’s free trade zone. Global financial companies such as BlackRock Investment Management and Fidelity Investments have already got the license to operate in the country.

Mirae Asset can tap into China’s asset management market worth US$20 trillion. It is now allowed to offer China’s onshore equity and fixed income funds to local institutional investors and high net worth individuals. It can also provide investment advice to the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership and Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor businesses, the company said.

WFOEs in China were initially limited to offering investment advisory services, but the authorities have since allowed license holders to access the onshore private fund business by registering as PEF managers with AMAC.

“We are carrying out various overseas expansion projects including the acquisition of US-based ETF manager Global X and a joint venture with Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corp.,” said a Mirae Asset official. “We have 32 trillion won (US$28 billion) overseas assets under management as of end-October.”

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)