Global asset managers bullish on China after policy shift

HONG KONG: Economic policy shift in China and the investment opportunities it is creating are drivers for long-term bets in the country by global asset managers, top executives said on Wednesday.

"China is the world's second-largest capital market" after the U.S., the head of BlackRock's (BLK.N) global client business, Mark Wiedman, said at the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

"Long term, (China) has to be part of a global investment portfolio."

Wiedman was among more than a dozen top executives of international firms speaking at the flagship event which began on Tuesday, and comes against a backdrop of economic slowdown in China where a massive debt crisis in the property sector has crippled some of its biggest companies and scared off investors.

Still, Wiedman said a significant policy shift is taking place in China which will make future investment more driven by capital markets as individuals diversify savings away from property and term deposits.

"So long term, those are big opportunities for us," he said, without elaborating on the policy shift.

Also at the summit, Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin said China's economy is undergoing massive transition.

"But if you lean into where the policies (are) going, you'll have a better opportunity to benefit from investing in those areas," Gitlin said.

China is likely to achieve its annual growth target of 5% smoothly, People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng told a separate forum in mainland China on Wednesday, state media reported.

The country's economic growth momentum has improved recently, with production and consumption recovering steadily and employment and consumer prices remaining stable overall, the Securities Times reported.

At the Hong Kong event, hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Fidelity International CEO Anne Richards said China was a key part of the global economy and that fact will not change soon.

Andrew Schlossberg, president and CEO of Invesco (IVZ.N), said the strengthening quality of Chinese companies would create "amazing opportunities" for investors.

Debt-laden municipalities represent a major risk to the world's second-largest economy, economists said, amid years of over-investment in infrastructure, huge bills to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and a deepening property crisis.

The government has sought to breathe life into the beleaguered property market and broader economy with a raft of measures that have so far done little to boost demand.

At a Singapore forum on Wednesday, HSBC Group (HSBA.L) CEO Noel Quinn said his bank had seen a 70% lift in business from Chinese clients looking to diversify outside of mainland China.

Quinn told the Hong Kong event on Tuesday that wealth flow from mainland China to Hong Kong has grown by 3 to 4 times this year.

PBOC Deputy Governor Zhang Qingsong told the Hong Kong event on Tuesday that he was not overly worried about the state of his country's economy, but said "structural issues" remained in some local government debt.