Hanwha Asset Management said Tuesday its wholly owned Chinese unit has been granted a private fund management license for mainland China.

A PFM license, approved by the Asset Management Association of China, allows foreign asset managers to create and sell funds investing in onshore stocks and bonds in China to local institutional and wealthy investors.

This comes four years after South Korea’s third-largest asset management company with over 93 trillion won ($82 billion) in assets under management launched a Chinese subsidiary in Tianjin with $10 million of capital.

Hanwha Asset’s Chinese arm was previously limited to Chinese market research for its direct investment in China as a qualified foreign institutional investor.

Hanwha Asset said the license will allow its Chinese arm to become an external fund manager for Chinese insurers and banks starting October 2021. The company also considers tapping into public fund management business in 2023, it added. Its target assets encompass Chinese listed stocks and bonds, as well as equities of privately held companies with strong technology.

Hanwha Asset is the second asset management company in Korea to receive a PFM license following Mirae Asset Global Investments, whose Chinese operation is based in Shanghai. The company will become the 31st foreign entity to earn the onshore license in China.

In 2019, Hanwha Asset earned a license to manage public funds in Singapore.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)