It is the first agreement of its type signed by both organisations.

Ping An of China Asset Management (Hong Kong), the wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An Insurance of China, has agreed to partner with a UK asset management firm to build out business ideas on a number of fronts.

The organisation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding withMerian Global Investors. The firms have already cooperated in providing investment advisory services with the management of the Merian China Equity Fund, which was outsourced by Merian Global Investors to Ping An Asset Management (Hong Kong) in March 2018, they said in a statement.

This MoU aims to strengthen the alliance between the businesses. It is the first agreement of its type signed by both organisations. Under the terms of the MoU, both parties will work together to explore business development opportunities in the fund distribution, marketing and investment advisory space, including knowledge sharing and training.

"This strategic relationship actually marks the beginning of our successful transformation to becoming a truly third-party asset manager from purely managing our in-house insurance capital by leveraging our strength in local market knowledge and investment expertise,” said Hoi Tung, the co-chief investment officer of Ping An Insurance of China. “We are very excited about entering this strategic cooperation with Merian Global Investors and we look forward to continuing to forge a deeper and stronger relationship in the future."

Richard Buxton, chief executive, Merian Global Investors said: "Growing our presence in Asia is one of our core strategic aims and the opportunity to partner with one of China's largest and most respected financial services businesses is incredibly exciting. We believe that access to the local knowledge and investment advisory expertise of a specialist Chinese asset manager will be of great benefit to our clients. I have every confidence this will be a highly-rewarding partnership and I look forward to sharing more details on our joint activity in due course."