CHINA'S trillion dollar asset-management market opens wider this week, forcing BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and other global firms to make a strategic decision: Go it alone or work with an entrenched local partner.
While the further liberalization of the investment banking and money management industries in China has been overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis, wealth firms are nonetheless laying out plans to tap a market poised to reach $30 trillion in assets by 2023, according to consultant Oliver Wyman.
Starting April 1, they can apply for licenses to set up wholly-owned mutual fund management firms for the first time. Vanguard and BlackRock are among firms going that route, people familiar have said. Other options include boosting ownership of existing joint venture partnerships to 100%, as JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to do, people familiar have said.
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