政府新闻
外资建议促分红、引入长线资金活跃资本市场 2023-10-16
A number of foreign-funded institutions, including BlackRock, suggested at the 2023 Shanghai Global Asset Management Forum that China should strengthen the policies regarding listed companies’ dividends to safeguard investors’ return in the face of the downturn of the Chinese mainland stock market.
It is fundamental for the market to allow investors to make money, Zhang Chi, managing director of US asset manager BlackRock, said at the Shanghai Global Asset Management Forum yesterday. China should adjust to practical issues, such as the quality of listed companies and their dividends, and the withdrawal of major shareholders by increasing policy support, Zhang noted.
Chinese regulators recently introduced a new dividend policy prohibiting controlling shareholders or actual controllers from selling shares of the listed companies they control on the secondary market if the listed companies have not issued any cash dividends within three years or they issued dividends of less than 30 percent of the average annual net profit in the past three years.
But this policy is not enough for some investors. Regulators should introduce policies to warn and punish listed firms that have not paid dividends and ask those who issue dividends at a ratio lower than required to explain why, said Desiree Wang, chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan Asset Management China, J.P. Morgan Chase’s mutual fund in China.
“We hope to improve the overall dividend expectation of listed companies because we can use such forecast to invest in this area,” Wang noted.
Foreign capital has recently increased its presence in China despite rumors of some foreign-funded institutions withdrawing from the Chinese market.
Several foreign institutions with the largest holdings of Chinese mainland-listed shares, including UBS and Goldman Sachs International, increased their holdings in the second quarter of the year, data from Wind Information showed.
Moreover, according to Yicai’s incomplete statistics, 10 Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, such as Kuwait Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, and Mubadala, have increased their holdings of Chinese assets through investments in the stock market, private equity, real estate, and venture capital.
“In the past year, Morgan Stanley has carried out a large-scale layout in various segments of the Chinese mainland financial industry,” said Wang Hongpin, general manager of the US investment giant. “In addition to completing wholly-owned funds, Morgan Stanley also made investments in the securities and futures fields, with securities accounting for 90 percent, and banking institutions also being involved.”
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has been increasing its presence in China since entering China to establish a joint venture fund company in 2019, Desiree Wang noted. The company also obtained a license to make the JV fund wholly owned at the beginning of this year, she added.
“BlackRock will not change its investment direction in China,” said Managing Director Zhang Chi. In addition to the public fund products issued by leading fund companies, a total of 187 funds were liquidated, but this is a normal business practice and unrelated to China’s economic situation, he added.
Zhang also reiterated that rumors claiming BlackRock is withdrawing from the Chinese market are untrue, as the fund it liquidated was China Flexible Equity Fund, a China-themed offshore fund issued in Europe in 2017, not a product under BlackRock’s mutual funds in China.
Source: Yicai Global
