HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by value, aims to start three new funds on the Chinese mainland next year as it taps into the country's rising demand for investment products.

 

"We will see a strong growth and I would be surprised if we didn't see at least US$2 billion of new funds flowing in," Rudolf Apenbrink, chief executive officer of HSBC Investments Hong Kong Ltd, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

 

HSBC already manages three funds worth US$1.5 billion on the mainland under the joint venture HSBC Jintrust Fund Management Co. It expects to receive regulatory approval for its fourth fund soon and will apply for the qualified domestic institutional investment, or QDII, quota in May, Apenbrink said.

 

Financial companies, including banks, fund managers and insurers, invest abroad using QDII quotas.

 

To cope with managing more funds, HSBC Jintrust plans to recruit as many as 20 new employees next year, Apenbrink said. The company has about 100 employees. HSBC Investment manages US$65 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

A boom in Chinese stocks attracted investors to open 47.5 million investment accounts to trade yuan-denominated shares and buy mutual funds in the first nine months of this year.

 

The mainland overtook Hong Kong as the second-largest equity market in Asia this year, partly driven by a surge in stock sales.

 

(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)