Bank Negara Malaysia, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Princeton University collectively garnered three-fifths of the roughly $1.5 billion in quotas awarded by Chinese regulators last month for investment in China's domestic capital markets.
On July 31, the latest periodic update on the website of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed Malaysia’s central bank getting a third quota allocation of $600 million, bringing its overall quota to $1 billion. SAFE awarded Bank Negara Malaysia quotas of $200 million apiece in April 2012, and April 2009.
In July, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan got additional quota capacity of $200 million, following an initial quota of $100 million in September 2012.
Princeton, meanwhile, was awarded $100 million in quotas, just more than a year after garnering an initial quota of $50 million in May 2012.
In the latest round, however, Columbia University ceded $10 million of unused capacity from a July 2008 quota of $100 million.
Once a quota is awarded, China’s regulators look for recipients to deploy their capital within six months, market participants say. Other quota winners last month included BNP Paribas, with an award of $150 million, bringing its combined quota to $350 million, and Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co., with $150 million, bringing its total to $250 million.
Three firms — China Everbright Asset Management Ltd., China International Capital Corp. Hong Kong Asset Management Ltd. and Boshi Fund (International) Ltd. — each received their first quotas under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program of $100 million apiece.
The latest quotas bring the total amount awarded by SAFE since the QFII program's launch roughly a decade ago to just less than $45 billion.
