Credit Agricole Asset Management and Axa Investment Management are negotiating fund management joint ventures with Agricultural Bank of China and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, respectively. Minsheng Bank is said to be in similar discussions with three suitors, including investment banks.
These deals, if they are inked and approved by China's regulators, will represent a second wave of new fund management companies controlled by China's commercial banks.
Until recently, banks were not allowed to own stakes in a fund management company. Rather they have been the primary distribution channel for third-party funds, thanks to their national or regional branch networks. The Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission long opposed the...
