Diversified financial services group MFS is aiming to cash in on the expanding Chinese middle class with the purchase of a 30 per cent share in a Hong Kong based mortgage provider.
MFS will pay US$20 million ($22.7 million) for 30 per cent of FindisNet, a company which specialises in distributing mortgages and insurance products across China.
"We are actively looking at other opportunities in the Asia region with a view to building out our business with appropriately experienced business partners with local knowledge and relationships," MFS head of investment banking Luke Gannon said.
FindisNet was founded in 2006 by Australian Geoff Ross and writes about US$40 million worth of mortgages in China each month.
Ross will keep 50 per cent of the business, while staff members have been allocated options for the remaining 20 per cent.
"This market is the most sought after consumer market in China and is traditionally a complex and extremely difficult market environment for foreign companies," Gannon said.
"The distribution of personal financial services and products to the emerging affluent consumer middle class in China is one of the most hotly sought after business opportunities globally today."
The total residential property market in China's top five cities grew at 12.6 per cent from Rmb792 billion ($122 million) to Rmb1 billion ($154 million) between 2005 and 2007.
