The Swiss bank is willing to pump even more money into mainland equities if additional investment quota is granted
UBS is wasting no time using the additional US$200 million China investment quota it was granted last month, and will eagerly pump even more money into the mainland's stock markets, according to top officials at the Swiss bank.
The money should be invested in full 'fairly soon as the demand is there', said Chi-won Yoon, the bank's head of Asian equities. 'It's just a question of actually physically buying the securities.'
The investment bank, which was the first foreign entity to receive permission to invest in China's US$500 billion A-share market under the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) scheme, can now invest up to $800 million, up from its initial quota of $300 million.
That is double the amount granted to Citigroup, which has the second-largest quota so far.
But contrary to other international investment banks, which complain that a paucity of credible stock market listings has made it impossible to invest their full quotas, UBS claims it has had no difficulties finding suitable equity investment targets.
By May - one year after the launch of QFII - only 63 per cent of the approved quotas, which then totalled 14 billion yuan, had been invested in securities while the rest was lodged in banks, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.