HFT Investment Management, the joint venture between BNP Paribas and China's Haitong Securities, has opened a Hong Kong subsidiary.

The company is the latest among many international ventures to open in Hong Kong, further emphasising the Special Administrative Region's position as a platform for global growth. HFT Investment was created in 2004 to serve as an investment advisor to overseas institutions. The scope of business for its new office will include mutual funds and private placements mostly for institutions and high net worth individuals from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, and other foreign private and corporate investors.

"We have already got commitment from some high net worth individuals, rich families and insurance companies in Europe," said He Yiwei, the vice president of institutional sales at HFT Hong Kong, adding that the firm was also in talks with private banks from both Japan and the US.

Since the State Administration of Foreign Exchange raised HFT's qualified domestic institutional investor quota to $1 billion early this year, the company has been enabled to offer a larger range of fund products. A second QDII is set to be launched before the year ends, pending regulatory approval.

HFT Hong Kong has a registered capital base of $7.7 million. It received approval to operate as an investment advisor and asset manager in October this year and now sits beside the BNP Paribas office at the Exchange Square Three building. It will be led by Tian Rencan, the chief executive of HFT, and manned initially by 10 employees.