{"id":31211,"date":"2025-06-18T12:41:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31211"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:41:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:41:51","slug":"oaktree-co-founder-howard-marks-calls-on-china-to-open-up-to-foreign-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31211","title":{"rendered":"Oaktree co-founder Howard Marks calls on China to open up to foreign investors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=45a062a6-5b13-4da7-ad29-9f1577bae07e\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Howard Marks, co-founder of $200bn alternatives manager Oaktree Capital Management, has called on China to open up more \u201casset classes\u201d to foreign investors as he set out an upbeat view of the world\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very optimistic about the Chinese economy in the long run,\u201d Marks said on a panel at Shanghai\u2019s flagship annual financial conference, citing the country\u2019s infrastructure and the size of its middle class. <\/p>\n<p>He proposed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/china\" data-trackable=\"link\">China<\/a> \u201cexpand the range of investment asset classes that are open to foreign investors\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Marks\u2019 comments come at a time when escalating trade tensions between the US and China have cast a chill over businesses in the mainland.<\/p>\n<p>China relaxed some restrictions on foreign financial groups at the end of Donald Trump\u2019s first term, leading to Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs and BlackRock launching new asset and wealth management ventures in the country. <\/p>\n<p>But overseas asset managers struggled to gain traction during pandemic shutdowns that led to the mainland being cut off from the wider world and highlighted the differences within a state-dominated financial system.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign exposure to many Chinese assets remains limited, including in a domestic corporate bond market where foreign ownership was just 0.29 per cent at the end of last year. <\/p>\n<p>The forum in Shanghai\u2019s Lujiazui, China\u2019s largest mainland financial centre, comes at a critical moment for policymakers as they seek to restore confidence against the backdrop of a property market slowdown and a fragile trade truce with the US. <\/p>\n<p>Marks\u2019 visit comes shortly after JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said he would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/7f925626-a655-47dc-8cb7-623a4a47ed78\" data-trackable=\"link\">\u201cdeepen\u201d engagement with China<\/a>, according to a state media readout of a meeting with vice-premier He Lifeng.<\/p>\n<p>A year earlier, Dimon said parts of his bank\u2019s business had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/25d17ea1-17e8-4f6a-9da4-9f726970d4e4\" data-trackable=\"link\">\u201cfallen off a cliff\u201d<\/a> in China, where the stock market has struggled with years of lacklustre performance, though supportive measures in September boosted prices. <\/p>\n<p>Marks has made his name over the past five decades by diving into markets \u2014 among them high-yield bonds, distressed debt and China \u2014 when others were unwilling to do so. <\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image o-teaser--opinion js-teaser\" data-id=\"3e23fa59-e64f-463c-9db3-c009cbc9f7f4\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3e23fa59-e64f-463c-9db3-c009cbc9f7f4\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2290\/1289\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>At a time when others described it as \u201cuninvestable\u201d, Marks told the Financial Times in 2022 that he got comfortable with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a2d6df4e-5b24-4268-b770-6c514ac378de\" data-trackable=\"link\">investing in China<\/a> after years of high-level discussions with authorities and assurances that the rule of law would be upheld.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Three years ago, Oaktree seized Evergrande\u2019s \u201cProject Castle\u201d property development in northern Hong Kong shortly after the world\u2019s most-indebted developer imploded.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/7aa2ca38-1c8a-4afb-860f-ce18d94b2346\" data-trackable=\"link\">Oaktree<\/a>, one of the oldest specialists in chasing companies for unpaid debts, was co-founded by Marks in 1995 and since then has grown to manage more than $203bn in assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Marks told the FT that global <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/019a275c-ab14-4ac3-8a7e-68758dd234a8\" data-trackable=\"link\">investors were starting<\/a> to \u201cquestion whether US exceptionalism is a little less exceptional\u201d, but added that there were doubts as to whether markets in Europe and Asia\u00a0offered a meaningful alternative. \u201cEurope still has sclerotic growth and a very high level of regulation, and China is still complicated,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere else can large amounts of capital be deployed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proof of the pudding is in the tasting,\u201d he said at the end of the Lujiazui panel. \u201cPeople will gain confidence if markets perform for them, not based on promises but based on performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/45a062a6-5b13-4da7-ad29-9f1577bae07e\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}