Aegon Asset Management has taken its first steps towards setting up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE) in China’s free trade zone after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Shanghai Lujiazui Administration Bureau.
The agreement will allow Aegon to sell offshore investment products and services to domestic Chinese institutions and high net-worth investors.
According to a statement by the asset manager, the deal will jointly support Shanghai Lujiazui Administration Bureau’s “build-up of a global asset management centre.”
"As signatories we will be one of an early group of global asset managers able to bring world class investment strategies to the domestic Chinese high net-worth and institutional market," said Martin Davis, head of Aegon Asset Management Europe.
A WFOE in Shanghai would give Aegon Asset Management a deeper foothold in the region, in particular with Aegon Industrial Fund Management Company (AIFMC), a Chinese joint venture established in 2008.
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