HONG KONG: China has given approval for Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund to acquire a stake of 10% in its second-largest mutual fund company, the first such investment in the sector by a major Middle East investor at a time of rising tension with the West.
China’s securities watchdog approved the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to become a stakeholder in China Asset Management Co (ChinaAMC), an official filing by the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed on Thursday.
The price of the stake was not disclosed. Earlier filings by ChinaAMC’s largest shareholder showed the 10% ownership would not be priced at less than $490 million.
In April last year Reuters first reported the sovereign fund had agreed to invest in the Chinese fund house.
QIA will become the third-biggest shareholder in ChinaAMC, which has assets of more than 1.8 trillion yuan ($249.98 billion)£¬and provides mutual funds and exchange traded funds to retail and institutional investors.
The deal was approved amid a flurry of activity between China and Gulf countries aiming to deepen political, economic and financial ties.
