Wealth management is set to become the latest battle ground between Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba after the former announced a $370m investment and “strategic co-operation” with the country’s oldest brokerage China International Capital Corp.

腾讯(Tencent)宣布投资3.7亿美元与中国最老牌券商中金公司(CICC)达成“战略合作”后，财富管理将成为中国互联网巨头腾讯与阿里巴巴(Alibaba)之间的最新战场。

The purchase of a 5 per cent stake by Tencent — best known for its ownership of Chinese messaging app WeChat — follows hot on the heels of Alibaba’s aggressive push into wealth management through its Ant Financial division.

腾讯以拥有消息应用程序微信(WeChat)闻名，该公司收购中金公司5%股权之前，阿里巴巴通过其蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)积极进军财富管理领域。

In June, Ant Financial opened up its wealth management app to other financial institutions, in the hopes of becoming a one-stop shop for China’s growing numbers of wealthy people, including the 1.5 million people who now have assets above the RMB10m ($1.5m) mark.

6月份，蚂蚁金服向其他金融机构开放其理财app，希望成为中国越来越多富裕人士的一站式服务点。中国现已有150万人的资产超过1000万元人民币(合150万美元)。

In a stock exchange announcement, CICC said the co-operation with Tencent would be “a significant impetus for the development of strategic businesses of the company, including but not limited to wealth management and asset management”.

中金公司在提交证交所的公告中表示，与腾讯的合作将对“本公司财富管理及资产管理等战略性业务发展也具有重大的推动作用”。

WeChat has around 938m active monthly users, according to the latest annual report from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. “It will be enormous,” said one Hong Kong-based investment banker of the CICC/Tencent deal.

根据风险投资公司凯鹏华盈(Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)的最新年度报告，微信拥有9.38亿月活跃用户。参与中金公司与腾讯这笔交易的一位香港投资银行家表示：“业务潜力将是巨大的。”

“Tie-ups like this are going to be what brings financial services to the people. It is not winner take all, so you will see more like this, and Ant has already cut deals for distribution/product.”

“这样的结盟将给人们带来金融服务。这不是赢者全拿，所以你会看到更多这样的合作，而且蚂蚁金服已经达成了分销/产品交易。”

Formed in 1995 as a joint venture between Morgan Stanley and China Construction Bank, CICC was the first international securities joint venture in China. Its asset management business was founded in 2002, and in 2007 it became one of the first Chinese brokerages to set up a wealth management division.

中金公司成立于1995年，是摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)与中国建设银行(China Construction Bank)的合资企业，它是中国第一家国际证券合资企业。其资产管理业务成立于2002年，并在2007年成为首家成立财富管理部门的中国券商之一。