China Life is China’s largest insurance group, institutional investor and corporate pension manager, and the joint entity - China Life AMP Asset Management Company Limited - will offer investments to retail and institutional investors in China.
These will initially include domestic listed equities and fixed income, AMP Capital stated.
AMP Capital said it will be a founding shareholder of the venture, holding a 15 per cent stake in China Life AMP Asset Management Company Limited, with the balance to be held by China Life Asset Management Company.
The joint venture has received regulatory approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, and is subject to regulatory approval by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
The move was enabled by new regulations that came into effect on 21 June 2013, allowing insurance companies in China to establish funds management companies offering public mutual funds to retail and institutional investors, AMP Capital stated.
AMP Capital said there are significant funds management opportunities in China due to the rapid growth of wealth management in the region.
“A funds management joint venture in China is a strategically significant move for AMP, giving us direct access to the world’s second largest and fastest growing major economy,” AMP chief executive Craig Dunn said, adding the group planned to expand its funds management offering internationally.
“The funds management joint venture represents the commercialisation of our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China Life and is the ideal balance of our mutual strengths and capabilities,” Mr Dunn said.
AMP said it has had a presence in China since 1997 and a formal relationship with China Life for nearly eight years. The two companies cooperated in Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) investments in 2006 and entered into a MOU for strategic cooperation in late 2009, which encompassed areas for partnership in funds management and pensions.