ICHAM is first Singapore fund manager to receive allocation under China's scheme for global asset managers

WEALTH management company ICHAM has received US$200 million from the Chongqing government for Chinese offshore investments, making it the first Singapore company to be allocated funds under China's Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) scheme.

ICHAM's fund will primarily be invested via Singapore-backed digital securities exchange ADDX. Both ICHAM and ADDX, previously known as iSTOX, were founded by ADDX chief executive Danny Toe.

First launched in Shanghai in 2012 to allow global asset managers access to high-net-worth and institutional investors in China, the QDLP scheme now includes other provinces and cities such as Beijing, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Tianjin, Qingdao and Hainan. The Chongqing government has a US$5 billion QDLP quota, and the ADDX-ICHAM partnership was among its first batch of two quota recipients announced by the government last month. The other allocation went to Hong Kong-based HWA Asset Management Limited.

"The opening up of official channels like QDLP to allow Chinese investors to diversify their portfolios globally has been taking place gradually and steadily since the 2000s. Amid rising asset prices within China, this move by the Chinese authorities is a prudent one that empowers Chinese institutions and high-net-worth individuals to participate in high-quality opportunities wherever they are, before bringing their returns back into the Chinese economy to the benefit of local businesses and households," said ADDX's chief commercial officer Choo Oi Yee.

Chinese individual investors in QDLP funds have to meet sophisticated investor requirements, such as household financial assets of at least five million yuan (S$1 million), or net household financial assets of at least three million yuan, or an individual annual income, averaged over three years, of at least 500,000 yuan.

Ms Choo said: "For international companies that manage or facilitate these investments, including ADDX, China represents a massive opportunity. We are only in the early days of this burgeoning flow of capital between China and the rest of the world."

In November 2020, ADDX signed a strategic agreement with the Chongqing Monetary Authority that paves the way for a digital securities exchange in the Chinese municipality.