The Fund is a liquid, long only, Systematic Active Equity (SAE) UCITS strategy targeting consistent alpha on an annual basis. The strategy uses a combination of both traditional quantitative signals and more innovative big data and machine learning insights. Together, these tools are used to identify around 300 companies for investment from a universe of 1,300 Chinese companies in the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong Exchange Stock Connect programme [1].

The Fund will be managed by the SAE team in San Francisco, with trading executed in Hong Kong. The team comprises more than 80 investment professionals across research, portfolio management and investment strategy. Dr Jeff Shen, PhD, co-chief investment officer of active equity and co-head of investments within SAE, leads the portfolio management team. He is supported by Dr Rui Zhao, PhD, who is co-portfolio manager on the fund.

Dr Jeff Shen, co-portfolio manager of the BGF China A-Share Opportunities Fund, comments: “We’ve been applying systematic investment methods to equity markets for over thirty years and more recently, we’ve been researching and applying new methods - big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence – to our models. We find these insights have extraordinary relevance in a market like China where data is quite often available and the market is large and complex. We have been managing this strategy for institutional investors for five years, and we are very excited to offer this strategy to retail investors in a vehicle that provides daily liquidity.”

Michael Gruener, Head of EMEA Retail at BlackRock, adds: “China is one of the largest stock markets in the world, but due to restrictions on ownership, foreign investors have had very little exposure to Chinese domestic equities. Now, with access to onshore Chinese companies through the recently opened Stock Connect programme, investors have the opportunity to invest in a previously untapped market.”