China Southern Fund Management Co Ltd will become the first domestic fund company to enter an overseas market when it forms a joint venture asset management firm in Hong Kong.

The firm will team up with Oriental Patron Financial Group to form the joint venture, said a company source, who declined to be named, Friday. He said the joint venture, China Southern Oriental Patron Asset Management Co Ltd, has been approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

He declined to reveal China Southern Fund's investment or share ownership in the new venture. The company may hold a press conference on Monday in Shenzhen to officially announce the news.

One of the major goals of the firm is to become a global asset management firm, said its general manager Gao Yuliang in an earlier report.

Zhang Qi, an analyst with Haitong Securities Co, sees the joint venture as the right move for China Southern Fund to get closer to that goal.

''It may also be a pioneer in leading other firms to enter overseas markets," said Zhang.

Set up in 1998, China Southern Fund Management is among China's biggest fund companies and was the first to sell products under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors scheme in 2007.