Billionaire Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, says he cannot take his money out of HSBC in Shanghai, China. Citing severe capital control by the Chinese government, he stressed: “It’s crazy … They’re putting all kinds of barriers.”
Mark Mobius Has Trouble Getting His Money Out of HSBC in China
The founder of Mobius Capital Partners, Mark Mobius, revealed that he cannot get his money out of HBSC in China during an interview with Fox Business last week. Mobius spent more than three decades at Franklin Templeton Investments before starting his own company. He previously served as the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group where he managed more than $50 billion in emerging markets portfolios.
Discussing the Chinese economy and problems with government control, the billionaire revealed:
I’m personally affected. I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai and I can’t take my money out … I can’t get an explanation of why they’re doing this. It’s just amazing. They’re putting all kinds of barriers.
“They don’t say: ‘no, you can’t get your money out.’ But [they say] give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money and so forth,” Mobius detailed. “This is crazy,” he exclaimed, emphasizing that this problem is “significant.”
He proceeded to caution about investing in China, stating: “The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country … So, I would be very, very careful investing in China.” Instead of investing in China, he explained: “What we are doing is going into Hong Kong which seems to be a little more open and able to get money in and out … Putting money into China, I think you have to be very, very careful.”
Discussing the impact of China reopening after lifting its zero-Covid policy, the Mobius Capital founder opined: “Now you have a government which is taking golden shares in companies all over China.” He warned, “That means they’re going to try to control all of these companies,” noting that it already happened to Tencent and Alibaba.
Mobius stressed:
I don’t think it’s a very good picture when you see the government becoming more and more control-oriented in the economy.
“The bottom line is that China is moving in a completely different direction than what Deng Xiaoping instituted when they started the big reform program,” Mobius said, referring to the Chinese leader who served from December 1978 to November 1989.
Commenting on the billionaire’s trouble getting his money out of HSBC in China, bitcoin supporters were quick to point out on social media that BTC can solve this kind of problem. However, Mobius has long been a bitcoin and crypto skeptic. In November last year, he predicted that the price of BTC, which is currently $22,508, will drop to $10,000. He also said cryptocurrencies are “too dangerous” for him to invest in, advising investors not to look at them as a means to invest but as “a means to speculate and have fun.”
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