Barclays on the hunt for Chinese banking partner to enter $4.3tn asset management market
Barclays is on the hunt for a Chinese Banking partner as it looks to grow its footprint into the Chinese asset management market, according to reports today.
The British lender, which pulled back from Asia six years ago, is aiming to establish an asset management joint venture in China with a local lender, two sources told Reuters, as part of the firm’s wider plans to push into the world’s second-largest economy.
The joint venture will be set up via its unit Barclays Investment Managers (BIM), which currently has operations in Europe and Japan, the people said.
A successful move into the market would see Barclays join a string of other Western financial firms who have started or are in the process of launching operations in China’s lucrative $4.3tn bank-dominated asset management market.
The Chinese expansion plans comes as the London-headquartered lender looks to gradually regrow its presence in Asia, after it exited its cash equities business and sold its Singapore and Hong Kong wealth management units six years ago.
Barclays declined to comment specifically on Reuters’ query about its plan for a China asset management joint venture, but said it has been expanding its presence in the country.
“The bank has been strengthening our cross-border corporate and investment bank platform in China, growing in a phased and measured approach,” a bank spokesperson said in a statement.