Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia's biggest investment bank has set up a trust company joint venture in China with an initial capital of 300 million yuan (44 million U.S. dollars), reported Friday's China Daily.

The Shanghai-based joint venture, Sino-Australian International Trust Co., enables the global provider of diversified financial services to offer yuan-dominated products, arrange domestic debt and equity financing, the newspaper said, citing a statement released by Macquarie.

Macquarie owns 19.99 percent of the venture, the maximum allowed under current regulations. Beijing Sanjili Energy Co Ltd (Sanjili), a state-owned power generation company, owns 60 percent of the joint venture while Beijing Rongda Investment Ltd owns 20.01 percent.

Several State-owned firms including the State Development and Investment Corp control Sanjili and Rongda.

The joint venture will initially focus on raising funds for companies and local government entities and provide yuan-based investment products to wealthy investors and institutional investors, according to the newspaper.

Founded in 1969, Macquarie operates in more than 70 office locations in 26 countries. It employed approximately 12,700 people and had assets under management of 243 billion Australian dollars as of March 31, 2009.

Last week Macquarie and China Everbright Ltd had announced plans to raise 1.5 billion U.S. dollars for two funds to invest in infrastructure projects in China.

Source: Xinhua