SOCIETE Generale’s China fund unit has launched a new mutual fund for overseas capital market investments after raising 463 million yuan (US$66 million), only 2.2 percent of its target, according to domestic media report Friday.

Shanghai-based Fortune SGAM Fund Management Co. had originally planned to raise up to US$3 billion for the new fund, which was launched Wednesday under China’s Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program.

As many as 15,421 investors bought into the new fund, China’s sixth QDII fund launched by a mutual fund management company.

The lackluster sale indicates that domestic investors are still cautious towards investing abroad after a slide in overseas equities markets this year, although SGAM had previously said the fund would initially focus on bonds, such as U.S. treasuries, instead of stocks.

In September and October last year, four QDII funds raised US$4 billion each from domestic investors but they have since fallen well below par value due to turmoil in global markets sparked by the U.S. credit crisis.

ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co., Credit Suisse’s China fund venture, said early this year it had raised just 3.15 billion yuan for China’s fifth QDII fund from a fund management firm, against a target of US$3 billion.

SGAM has said its planned QDII fund would be allowed to invest 60 to 95 percent of its proceeds in equities, which would consist mainly of overseas-listed mainland-related companies. The rest would be invested in high-grade fixed-income products listed in the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong. (SD-Agencies)