Chinese investors and businesses are increasingly seeking profits abroad, driven by domestic market challenges. This outward investment trend is led by mechanisms like the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program amidst regulatory challenges and a complex economic backdrop, reflecting a strategic pivot towards global diversification.
Finding Profts Aborad
Chinese investors and businesses are increasingly looking to make profits abroad due to a combination of domestic market saturation, intense competition, and diminishing returns within China.
A Search for New Opportunities
This outward expansion is the result of investors and businesses searching for new growth opportunities, diversifying investment portfolios due to economic slowdown and regulatory uncertainties, and the desire to capture shares in emerging and developed markets.
Plenty of Reasons to Leave
Investors and businesses are also going to international markets for potentially higher returns, access to advanced technologies, and the ability to circumvent trade barriers and protectionist measures in key economies.
Airways Abroad
The Chinese electric vehicle maker Airways is one such company that is taking a bold step. Airways has decided to focus entirely on selling cars overseas and is talking to investors about getting back into making cars, including a new affordable model.
Covering the Cost
Aiways is on the lookout for a hefty investment to kick-start production again and to cover the costs of developing their new car.
They’re setting their sights on exporting 15,000 to 25,000 cars this year and eventually more than 100,000 in the future.
Heavy Competition
Choosing to concentrate on European markets comes from the heavy competition in China’s car industry.
Searching for Success
With so many companies fighting over prices, Airways and other startups think they have a better shot at success in other foreign markets where they can stand out more.
The QDII Program
There has also been an increase in foreign profits because of China’s Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) Program.
This program is a financial scheme created by China to allow Chinese investors, including both institutions and individuals, to invest in offshore financial markets within the framework of controlled capital outflows.
A New Record
Because of the QDII program, foreign investment sales have shot up by 50% from last year, hitting a new investment record.
People in China seem to have a growing preference for offshore assets amidst domestic market uncertainties.
Struggling Locally
Even as these QDII funds are selling like hotcakes, local stock funds in China are struggling to keep up while investors continue to search for better places to invest their money.
Scrambling With Demand
Fund managers are scrambling to find ways to meet this huge demand because of the limits on how much they can invest overseas through the QDII scheme.
As a result, they’re getting creative and looking for new ways to let people invest in foreign markets.
Beijing is Struggling
This massive movement of Chinese money into other countries is also complicating things for Beijing.
A Tough Balancing Act
They’re trying to keep the yuan stable and get their local markets going up again, but all this interest in investing elsewhere has been a tough balancing act.
Intense demand
The enthusiasm for offshore investments, as evidenced by overbidding for ETFs tracking foreign indices and the significant fundraising success of certain QDII products, shows the intense demand for diversified investment options among Chinese investors.
Investing Outside the Box
With the rules and limits on how much money can go overseas being fairly strict, fund managers and investors have to think outside the box to get around these limits and get into international markets.
A Complex Landscape Going Forward
The backdrop of Chinese stocks near a five-year low and record-low yields on treasury bonds, coupled with fund managers’ efforts to meet the growing demand for offshore investment, underscores China’s complex economic and financial landscape and the ongoing shift in investor strategies towards global diversification.
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