Through the arrangement of parent and sub funds and with the multi-level leverage mechanism supported by both investment and credit, the fund is expected to leverage more than 150 billion yuan of investment capital at home and abroad.
Sailing Capital International is managed by Sailing Capital Management Co Ltd, which was established in Shanghai in September, 2011. It was the fourth fund under Shanghai International Group. Apart from Shanghai International Group, other investors include holding groups controlled by the central government and the Shanghai government, listed companies, well-known private companies and financial institutions. It is said that Sailing Capital International will facilitate cross-border RMB flows via outbound investment. The pricing, trading and settlement of the projects invested by the fund will first consider the use of RMB.
The newly-launched fund is part of Shanghai's initiatives to secure the status of an international financial center. Many influential guests attended the ceremony to celebrate the successful launch of the fund. They included representatives from the People's Bank of China and related ministries as well as those from the Shanghai government, financial institutions and enterprises. The Shanghai Mayor sent a special congratulatory message to the ceremony, noting that the successful set-up and fund raising of Sailing Capital International is of great significance to enhance the capabilities of Shanghai's financial markets, boost Shanghai's financial assets and to further step up building Shanghai into a global financial hub.
According to the "Development Plan for Shanghai International Financial Center during the 12th Five-year Period" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in late January, the goal of developing Shanghai international financial center highlighted the initiative "to strive to basically build Shanghai as a global RMB center for product innovation, trading, pricing and settlement by 2015." The debut of the large-sized RMB international investment fund will offer a solid support to the ambitious Shanghai.
The other hand, Sailing Capital International conducts overseas investment with RMB. It will greatly boost the internationalization of the RMB. In recent years, cross-border RMB business has been growing swiftly, but the size of RMB direct investment is very small. According to the statement by the People's Bank of China, the total cross-border settlement in RMB in 2011 amounted to 2.08 trillion RMB, among which only 5 percent was related to RMB direct investment. The amount of outbound investment in RMB was even smaller, at 20.15 billion RMB, accounting for less than 1 percent of total RMB settlement.
