The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, located in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, has attracted a large number of wholly-owned foreign enterprises. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

UK-based Man Group announced on Dec 11 that its wholly-owned subsidiary, located in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, has issued the first self-managed private securities investment fund in China and also put on records at the Asset Management Association of China.

This has been the third private fund issued by a wholly-owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) in China. The former two are a bond fund issued by the WOFE of Fidelity Investment Group and a stock fund issued by the subsidiary of UBS.

This fund will use the quantitative model to invest in China's bulk commodity future market. And the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China serves as trustee of the fund.

The fund was issued only three months after the subsidiary received the qualification of Private Securities Investment Fund Manager in September that allows it to provide qualified institutional and individual investors with investment products in China.

Li Yifei, chairman of Man Group China, said that with the continuous growth of China's assets management industry, the company will provide qualified Chinese investors with diversified investment strategies, which will launch more fund products in China.

Currently, many WOFEs in China have received the qualification of Private Securities Investment Fund Manager, of which 80 percent registered in Shanghai Free Trade Zone because of the zone's preferential policies.

Their arrival was attributed to China's broad assets management market. Reports say that China's assets management size will reach nearly 60 trillion yuan ($9 trillion) by 2020, doubling its size in 2015. Public funds will increase from 9.16 trillion yuan in 2016 to 25 trillion yuan in 2020.

Man Group, headquartered in London provides a range of funds for institutional and private investors globally and is the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, reporting $103.5 billion in funds under management as of September 2017.