(Yicai) Jan. 3 -- AllianceBernstein Holding has become the fifth foreign-owned asset management company that is given the green light to start operating mutual funds in China.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved AllianceBernstein Fund Management to conduct business that pools money from different investors to allocate it to a portfolio of assets, the Nashville-based firm announced yesterday.

Before this, BlackRock, Neuberger Berman Group, Fidelity International, and Schroders got similar permits as China removed its foreign ownership caps in the mutual fund industry in 2020.

The American asset manager noted in an email sent to Yicai that after getting the go-ahead, its Chinese arm will provide Chinese investors with differentiated domestic investment products and solutions.

AllianceBernstein said that mainland-listed shares are very likely to stop the downward trend and start rising again this year amid further room for policy stimulus and many other favorable factors. Moreover, listed companies' profits might notch double-digit growth, it added.

The three-year decline of Chinese stock markets is "abnormal," Huang Senwei, senior market strategist at AllianceBernstein, noted recently. A return to bullish sentiment is highly possible, Huang added.

Founded in 1967, AllianceBernstein managed USD696 billion of assets worldwide as of Nov. 30, last year. The company has been active in China for over 25 years since it set up an office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997. Twenty years later, the firm opened its Shanghai office and became a qualified domestic limited partner in 2018.

Editor: Emmi Laine