July 9 (Bloomberg) -- China’s E Fund Management Co. hired Charles Wang from Acadian Asset Management LLC to head the company’s Hong Kong unit to expand overseas and advise on foreign institutional investments in China. Wang will help oversee global investment and business development operations at the Guangzhou, southern China-based fund, he said in a phone interview today. Developing investment products in global markets and fund raising outside China will be part of Wang’s position at E Fund, he said.

E Fund received a $1 billion quota from the Chinese government in October to invest abroad under the qualified domestic institutional investor, or QDII, program. The fund will seek to work with overseas institutional investors to help them obtain a quota for investing in China, according to Wang.  “We see two trends happening, China’s money is going out to invest globally, and money all over the world is looking for opportunities in China,” Wang said in the interview. “I will be working on both fronts at E Fund.”  E Fund spokeswoman Ai Liqun declined to comment. At Boston-based Acadian, Wang was a senior portfolio manager. Assets under management at E Fund exceeded 200 billion yuan ($29.5 billion) at the end of March, according to its website. Assets under management at the nation’s top 60 fund management companies combined climbed 38 percent to 2.68 trillion yuan in 2009, according to Shanghai-based Z-Ben Advisors in January.

QDII, QFII

China lets citizens buy overseas stocks and bonds only through QDII funds while ownership of yuan-denominated or A-shares is limited to Chinese citizens and approved overseas investors under the qualified foreign institutional investors, or QFII, program. “A shares have become more attractive to foreign investors now,” he said. Last month, yuan-denominated stocks fell below Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong for the first time in almost four years, according to the Hang Seng China AH Premium Index. China had approved 76 QDII funds at the end of the first quarter, allowing $64 billion to be taken from China and invested abroad, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said today. The regulator approved 88 QFIIs at the end of the first quarter.