SBI Holdings, the Japanese investment group, has announced that its fund management joint venture with China's Shanghai Yidian Holding received approval to sell renminbi-denominated products in China. 

The fund is the first non-Chinese entity to be approved under the RMB Qualified Foreign Limited Partner programme launched in October 2012 by the Shanghai Municipal Office of Finance, said SBI in a statement. The RQFLP scheme is an extension of the qualified foreign limited partner scheme and allows foreign investors to invest offshore RMB into private equity funds and venture capital funds in the country. 

Under the QFLP programme, foreigners were only allowed to invest in domestic funds using foreign-currency capital. The RQFLP programme makes it possible for investors to directly invest in funds using their own RMB or the overseas RMB converted from foreign currency.

The establishment and management of the fund are slated for January 2013. It will have a commitment amount of RMB200 million ($32 million), where SBI Holdings will contribute RMB100 million, Shanghai Yidian will put in RMB100 million and the rest will be provided by other investors.