The last quarter of the year in Asia is a time for a large number of industry conferences. This year’s conferences have been fuelled by an increasing interest in the Asian region by asset managers looking to extend their reach into what is viewed as a rapidly growing market.
In part this also reflects the state of play for many companies in their home markets where limited growth opportunities are causing companies to consider expansion overseas. Although each conference has its own particular focus, a small number of common themes have emerged. The traffic is now flowing both ways. European and US companies are continually looking to enter Asia. And now some Asian companies are looking increasingly to internationalise their businesses and move offshore.
Mainland Chinese asset managers are an example of this. Such companies have taken advantage of new regulations for Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors allowing subsidiaries of Chinese companies to capture overseas demand in domestic mainland securities denominated in renminbi.