Billionaire investor Mark Mobius says he cannot take money out of China — FOX Business
March 05, 2023
SHANGHAI (March 5): Billionaire investor Mark Mobius told FOX Business he cannot take his money out of China due to the country's capital controls, cautioning investors to be "very, very careful" about investing in an economy under a tight government grip.
"I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai. I can't take my money out. The government is restricting flow of money out of the country," Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, told FOX Business in an interview published on March 2.
"I can't get an explanation of why they're doing this .... They're putting all kinds of barriers. They don't say: No, you can't get your money out. But they say: give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money .... This is crazy."
Mobius' comments were circulated on Chinese social media site WeChat at the weekend.
Mobius led emerging market investment at Franklin Templeton Investments for three decades and is known for his bullish view on China. Now, though, he said, he "would be very, very careful" investing in the country.
"The bottom line is that China is moving in a completely different direction than what Deng Xiaoping instituted when they started the big reform programme," he said, referring to the former Chinese leader.
"Now you have a government which is taking golden shares in companies all over China. That means they're going to try to control all of these companies .... So I don't think it's a very good picture when you see the government becoming more and more control-oriented in the economy."
Mobius, who calls himself "the Indiana Jones of Emerging Market investing", told FOX Business he's increasing exposure to alternative markets such as India and Brazil.
Mobius and HSBC could not be reached at the weekend.
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/657833
- Billionaire investor Mark Mobius told Fox Business in an interview last week, “I can’t get my money out.”
- Officials at the State Administration on Foreign Exchange (SAFE) told CNBC that it’s a matter of a “basic process and internal control requirements of the bank handling [this] specific business.”
Chinese authorities have denied claims by billionaire investor Mark Mobius, who said he is unable to wire funds out of China due to government restrictions on capital flow.
Asked in an interview with Fox Business last week about whether he’s reduced his exposure to China, Mobius said, “the government is restricting the flow of money out of the country.”
He warned investors of “all kinds of barriers” imposed by the government.
“I’m personally affected because I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai,” he told Fox Business. “I can’t get my money out.”
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Dario Pignatelli | Bloomberg | Getty Images |
Officials at the State Administration on Foreign Exchange (SAFE) told CNBC in a statement that it’s a matter of a “basic process and internal control requirements of the bank handling specific business.” They did not name HSBC.
“We have noticed that relevant market participants have doubts about the bank’s handling of their personal fund remittance businesses,” SAFE said in its statement. “There is no change in the country’s policy on cross-border remittance of funds.”
HSBC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
SAFE said it will continue guiding and urging commercial banks to optimize cross-border financial services and improve their service levels.
Peter Alexander, managing director of Z-Ben, a Shanghai-based investment management consulting firm, said he did not encounter problems in cross-border capital flows out of China.
“I spent this morning speaking to a dozen clients all of whom confirmed to me that there are no issues in the operations of cross-border capital flows,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Business as usual.”
He said what Mobius is facing may be a process that “any individual looking to conduct overseas transfers” goes through. He added that his business has “never had a single issue” wiring money in and out of China.
“As for Mobius, well the issue raised is with his personal bank account,” Alexander wrote. He pointed out that Mobius is “far from alone in his frustration” as other have experienced the same issues.
— CNBC’s Iris Wang contributed to this report.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/07/china-denies-mark-mobius-claims.html
