Unit of asset firm gets quota of US$50m

BNP Paribas Asset Management’s wholly foreign-owned enterprise has been granted a Qualified Domestic Limited Partner quota of US$50 million, the company said yesterday.

The Shanghai-based QDLP scheme allows global asset managers to raise funds from domestic investors in China to buy overseas assets such as equities and real estate investment trusts.

BNP Paribas Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Co Ltd will be the first firm under the program to introduce an Environment, Social and Governance-related product to cater to the growing appetite from onshore investors on sustainable investing.

“China is a key growth market for BNP Paribas,” said Ligia Torres, chief executive officer of BNP Paribas’s asset management business in Asia-Pacific, “Through this program, qualified high net worth and institutional investors in China seeking to diversify their investments across an expanding range of asset classes and geographies can now access our global expertise as an investment solutions provider.”

BNP Paribas Asset Management’s unit became one of the first global asset management WFOEs operating in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone in December 2014.

Since 2004, the French bank’s asset management arm has provided its global clients with access to the Chinese market as one of the largest global Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor managers. In September 2014, the firm received one of the first yuan QFII licenses in France and eurozone.