The Fund is designed to enable a growing number of investors seeking to access opportunities in both onshore (A-shares) and offshore (H-shares, Red-chips, P-chips, American Depositary Receipts [ADRs], etc.) Chinese equity markets without having the need to allocate to two separate strategies.

Funds investing in China often focus solely on offshore equities, with onshore Chinese equities - namely China A-Shares – severely under-owned by global investors due to historic market restrictions on foreign investment.

The BGF China Flexible Equity Fund is managed under a flexible approach, and invests across A-Shares and Chinese offshore equities, market capitalisation, sectors and factors.

It seeks to take advantage of the nuances in the Chinese equity markets, including valuation differences between markets, factors which work favourably in different market cycles, or sector specific opportunities. The Fund is a long-only, fundamentals-driven and concentrated portfolio, investing in between 20 and 50 companies from a universe of over 3,300 onshore and 1,000 offshore stocks.

The BGF China Flexible Equity Fund is managed by Helen Zhu, Head of Chinese Equities at BlackRock, and is supported by a team of 10 dedicated China-focused research analysts based in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Helen Zhu, manager of the BGF China Flexible Equity fund, added: “Chinese equities have been demonstrating higher sector return dispersions[1], offering active stock pickers a rich investment universe. Dynamic, vibrant and now more accessible than ever before, we believe Chinese equities offer investors an attractive opportunity to invest in the transformation of this huge country. The Fund aims to blend the best opportunities, taking advantage of the nuances in the Chinese equity markets. Through flexible allocation, the Fund can invest across the full range of market capitalization and Chinese stocks listed globally, whether they are listed in mainland China, Hong Kong, the US or elsewhere.”

Michael Gruener, Head of EMEA Retail at BlackRock, comments: “Backed by the world’s largest population, the second largest economy and an increasingly sustainable growth path, Chinese equity markets are a rich hunting ground for investors. Most funds investing in China still tend to focus solely on offshore equities, meaning investors are missing out on hundreds of potential investments. Through this fund, we are giving clients the opportunity to access both mainland and offshore Chinese equity markets with one flexible strategy.”