*

Artisan will shut its Hong Kong office by end-June,

sources say

*

Firm is winding down its Greater China strategy partly due

to

geopolitical concerns, source says

*

Artisan's exit comes amid heightened U.S. scrutiny of

American

capital flowing into China

By Kane Wu and Summer Zhen

HONG KONG, June 6 (Reuters) - U.S.-based investment firm

Artisan Partners is shutting down its Hong Kong office by the

end of June, two sources with knowledge of the situation said.

The firm is disbanding the Hong Kong-based team after it

decided to shut down its Greater China strategy partly due to

concerns about escalating Sino-U.S. trade and geopolitical

tensions that have made investments in the world's

second-largest economy riskier, said one of the sources.

Artisan, which is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and

managed $164.4 billion globally as of the end of April, did not

immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The sources declined to be named as the information was not

public. Reuters could not immediately ascertain how many people

would be affected by the shutdown of the Hong Kong office.

The firm's China post-venture strategy, a fund that focuses

on Chinese small- and mid-cap public and private companies, had

$113 million of assets under management at the end of April,

according to the firm's monthly update.

In the same update, Artisan said the China-focused portfolio

was in the process of winding down, without giving details.

The firm's retreat from Hong Kong comes amid the U.S.

government's tightened scrutiny of American investments in China

and an ongoing trade war that has clouded the business outlook

of many export-heavy companies from China.

The U.S. government restricts U.S. investments in certain

sensitive technology sectors in China, such as semiconductors,

artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

U.S. investors are also restricted from investing in

companies that are on the U.S. sanctioned entity list that

comprise a growing number of those from China.

U.S. onshore investors were not able to buy shares of

Chinese battery giant CATL in its $4.6 billion Hong

Kong listing last month due to the structure of the deal, CATL's

filings showed.

CATL was placed on a U.S. Defense Department list in January

of Chinese companies it says work with China's military.

By March 2025, Artisan's China post-venture strategy posted

a net loss of 10.4% since its inception in March 2021.

"The largest risks for investing in China will continue to

be geopolitics and domestic policy overshoots," Tiffany Hsiao,

the strategy's portfolio manager, said in a client letter on the

firm's website in April.

Outside the U.S., Artisan also has offices in London,

Dublin, Singapore, and Sydney, according to its website.

The move follows the exit or downsizing of several North

American asset managers and international law firms from Hong

Kong over the past few years.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canada's third-largest

pension fund, announced the closure of its Hong Kong office in

March.