(Yicai Global) Jan. 7 -- China's multi-manager investment landscape is expanding quickly as the value of newly established fund of funds jumped to exceed CNY100 billion (USD15.7 billion) in 2021, a historic high.

Some 128 publicly accessible funds that invest in other funds were formed in China last year, raising CNY119.5 billion (USD18.7 billion), according to financial data provider Choice. Both the number and the value were bigger than ever. Moreover, the fundraising scale surpassed the combined sum of the four straight years till 2020.

The market has a high level of concentration. Some 32 FoFs, or a quarter of the total, exceeded CNY1 billion (USD156.9 million) in capital. The group made up more than 80 percent of all fundraising in 2021. The heaviest core group within the 32 were nine managers of public funds, including Aegon-Industrial Fund Management and AXA SPDB Investment Managers.

Target-risk FoFs can make investing more simple for investors as they only need to examine the dimensions of returns and volatility before choosing the most suitable products, Lin Guohuai, senior FoF manager at Aegon-Industrial Fund Management, said to Yicai Global. These funds, which are based on risk tolerance, have mechanisms to improve the rate of return in the long run, Lin added.

Diversified investing products have great potential in China, particularly due to the aging population. Retirement FoFs make up more than 12 percent of all accessible funds for retail investors in the United States, said Gao Ying, executive general manager of PingAn Fund's retirement investment center.

Meanwhile, China’s funds tally CNY25 trillion (USD3.92 trillion), but the share of FoFs is less than 1 percent, said Gao. This means that FoFs have huge room for growth, she added.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi