Funds News
- Shenzhen fund firm lures Morgan Stanley
Date: 21-Sep-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
WALL Street bank Morgan Stanley plans to buy into China's Jutian Fund Management Co. in a move to tap China's red-hot wealth management sector, sources close to the situation said Wednesday.
Morgan Stanley had signed an initial agreement with Shenzhen-based Jutian Fund, which had applied to regulators to approve the deal, the sources said.
Jutian Fund plans to sell about a 50 percent stake in the firm to new foreign and domestic investors, including Morgan Stanley, as part of a restructuring to boost its business, said a Jutian Fund official, who declined to be named.
The Jutian official declined to say how big a stake Morgan Stanley would take or how much it would pay, but said the Wall Street bank would be joined by a domestic firm as a co-investor.
If the deal is approved, Morgan Stanley would transform Jutian Fund into a fund management joint venture controlled by the U.S. bank, said the sources, who declined to be identified.
The sources and the Jutian official said it was not certain if the deal would win regulatory approval.
'Probably the only issue left there now is whether they can secure approval from Chinese regulators,'said one of the sources, noting that investments in the fund industry have been slow to get the green light as the government looks to control the rollout of new fund products.
A foreign investor is limited to owning less than 50 percent of a fund venture, according to Chinese regulations.
Last October, Morgan Stanley acquired the small Nan Tung Bank, a deal that gave it a coveted onshore commercial banking license in China ahead of U.S. investment banking rivals.
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