As China's economy moves towards more consumption driven growth, the average per capital income is increasing rapidly. This growth is creating a new swath of Chinese middle class with more disposable income than ever before. Estimates are that by the end of 2015, the number of middle-class families in China will grow 40% and their investable assets could reach RMB 114.5 trillion. As a result, we will likely see massive growth in China's wealth management industry.
Chinese wealth management institution CreditEase Wealth Management Co., Ltd. (CreditEase) and the US-based asset management institution Wellington Management have seen the trend and are looking to provide middle class and high net worth individuals in China with a foreign investment opportunity.
CreditEase will provide raise capital for a fund which will be managed by Wellington and mainly invested in pre-IPOs of the US companies. The size of the fund was described as “tens of millions”. This strategic partnership with Wellington Management meets a market demand and fits with the CreditEase ‘1+3More’ strategy. The ‘1’ is a P2P fixed income products, while the ‘3’ are private equity, capital market, and overseas allocations.
The collaboration between CreditEase and Wellington has a strategic significance. CreditEase aims to step up its globalisation pace and reach. And Wellington is very interested in the Chinese market, conducting extensive research on and investment in several Chinese companies. With China’s “mass affluent” population increasing, the trend of Chinese investment capital going global represents a future general trend.