Man Group, the world’s second- largest hedge fund manager, is positioning itself for an expansion into mainland China as part of a drive beyond its base in Europe and the Middle East.

The FTSE 100 listed group, which has suffered over the past quarter from a painful fall in assets under management, due in large part to the eurozone crisis, has hired Yifei Li, one of China’s leading businesswomen, as its “China chair” to oversee the push.

Ms Yifei is the former head of MTV in China and the chief representative in the country of its parent company, Viacom.

Ms Yifei will work with Pierre Lagrange, co-founder of Man-owned GLG Partners, who was made Asia chairman, a new position, by the company last month.

Mr Lagrange has been joined by David Mercurio, a former senior portfolio manager at Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation, the $100bn sovereign wealth fund, who is Man’s new head of Asia Equity.

“We take the view that China is going to be a very big part of growth for the world. It is a perfect time to expand there,” Mr Lagrange told the Financial Times.

The company has a “5-10 year” strategic view, said Mr Lagrange, but sources familiar with Man’s plans say it hopes to open a fully-fledged research and trading office in Beijing in the near future.

However, the company must first be granted licences by Chinese authorities.

“We’re already doing quite a lot of Asian investments,” says Mr Lagrange, “but further down the road we will have Asian-centric equity long short funds and more resources on the ground”.

China is already a “huge source of intelligence” for Man’s funds, Mr Lagrange said. The company has on-the-ground observers monitoring production at factories or consumption in luxury goods outlets, for example.

Asia has become a much less risky place to invest, says Mr Lagrange. “Ten years ago the big determinants of emerging market prices were macro factors and flows,” he says. “It’s reversed. Now those are what dominate investing in Europe.”

Expansion in China remains a desirable but difficult objective for many hedge fund managers, however. While some have established sizeable offices in Hong Kong – including Man, which already has a 60-person operation there – few have ventured on to the mainland.