China Starts Hiring for New Asset Manager

China Investment Corp., the nation’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, has embarked on a global recruitment drive to hire 64 investment professionals for a new asset management firm it plans to establish within a month, says a person familiar with the matter. So reports the China Daily.

The new firm, to be called Guoxin Asset Management but already nicknamed the “second CIC,” has registered capital of just under $3 billion and is part of China’s bid to restructure its state-owned businesses.

The firm will be wholly owned by the state-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). It will be charged with consolidating state-owned enterprises, and turning small and unprofitable state-owned ventures into profitable companies.

The new firm is replacing two asset management companies set up by SASAC in 2005 to take over loss-generating state-owned enterprises, the China Daily reports.

A statement posted on the CIC website this week invites applications from hedge fund analysts, asset allocation researchers, financial analysts, private equity investment managers, and credit and country risk analysts, Dow Jones reports.

A separate statement gave a closing date of Aug. 9 for applications, suggesting the CIC has an urgent need for the new employees.

But at least some of the jobs will only go to those born in China and who are members of the Chinese Communist Party, the Financial Times reports.

Some applicants, including those for secretarial staff and human resources managers,

“must be [a] Chinese Communist Party member,” while country analysts in the international cooperation department “must be good at keeping secrets,” the FT reports.

As for private equity investment managers, the CIC says it is not yet formally accepting applications but is interested in résumés from those with investment experience in overseas real estate markets, agricultural sectors, forestry and infrastructure.

The FT says that is a strong clue of the sectors the CIC plans to invest in when it receives a new injection of cash, expected to be as much as $200 billion.

According to the CIC’s 2008 annual report, issued in August 2009, the company had about 200 employees. It was looking to fill vacancies for 33 categories in 13 departments in June 2009, Bloomberg reports.