(Yicai Global) Sept. 2 -- DBS Group has received regulatory approval to form a joint venture securities company in China, in which the Singaporean financial services giant will own 51 percent. That increases to eight the number of brokerages majority owned by overseas players.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the establishment of DBS Securities China on Aug. 27, the regulator said on its website yesterday.

China announced in 2018 that the country would raise the limit on foreign investment in JV brokers, fund managers and futures firms to 51 percent, with no restriction after three years. On March 13 this year, the CSRC said that it would lift the ratio on April 1, eight months earlier than scheduled.

Of the majority foreign-owned brokers, four are new JVs and four have seen their foreign shareholders gain control through stake increases. They include UBS Securities, J.P. Morgan Securities China, Nomura Orient International Securities, Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities, Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities and Daiwa Securities China.

Shanghai-based DBS Securities China has registered capital of CNY1.5 billion (USD219.7 million). It will handle brokering, investment consulting, trading, underwriting and sponsorship of securities. DBS applied in March last year to set up the JV.

DBS Bank contributed CNY765 million (USD112.1 million) to the JV’s registered capital. Its four Chinese owners, all controlled by the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, funded the remaining 49 percent.

China, which DBS Bank identified a decade ago as its most important future market for the future, now contributes a third of the group’s profits, making it the most profitable market outside Singapore, according to Peter Seah, chairman of DBS Group Holdings.

Editor: Peter Thomas