Official says pension fund will be a long-term investor in HK
Fears that the H-share market might become a volatile trading ground when China's 211 billion yuan social security fund begins investing in it in earnest this year were dismissed yesterday by the man in charge of the fund's investment programme.
'The fund is a long-term investor and we have no need to pay out cash in the near future. Therefore, we will not actively buy and sell Hong Kong stocks in the short term,' Li Keping assured a visiting Hong Kong delegation yesterday.
Mr Li, the director-general of investment for the National Council of the Social Security Fund, was hosting a group of Hong Kong brokers and fund managers led by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang.
Mr Li said through an attendant that the 'buy and hold' strategy would be applied particularly to holdings acquired by the social security fund in initial public offerings by mainland companies listing in Hong Kong.
At an investment conference in Beijing on March 29, he said that the social security fund planned to double its domestic stock investments and begin buying overseas securities and fixed-income products from this month, according to state media.
The social security fund was established in 2000 in a bid to accumulate assets to support the mainland's grossly underfunded pension system.
