In the first half of the year, there were over 180 changes in senior executives, and the fund industry continued to experience a trend of "handsome changes". Finance | Fund | Senior Management

Recently, several fund companies including BlackRock Fund, Xinhua Fund, and Morgan Fund have successively issued executive change announcements. According to data from Tonghuashun, as of July 2nd, there have been 37 changes in senior executives of fund companies since June, involving 26 fund managers including Galaxy Fund, Industrial Fund, and Fuanda Fund.

Since the beginning of this year, the flow of high-end talents in the fund industry has remained fierce. According to incomplete statistics by First Financial reporters, as of July 2nd, a total of 182 senior executives under 86 fund managers have changed since the beginning of this year, while the number of senior executives changed during the same period last year was 168, involving 89 fund managers.

It can be seen that the overall number of changes in senior executives of public funds has increased this year, with many institutions involved being managers of small and medium-sized public funds. The data shows that Anhui Province accounts for over two-thirds of fund managers with a management scale of less than 100 billion yuan, further highlighting the development difficulties faced by small and medium-sized public funds.

Multiple public fundraisers promote new executives

On July 1st, BlackRock Fund announced that its former deputy general manager, Zhang Pengjun, had resigned due to internal work arrangements. In early June, Tang Xiaodong, the head of BlackRock China, Chairman of BlackRock Fund Management Co., Ltd., and member of BlackRock Asia Pacific Executive Committee, resigned, which attracted industry attention.

As the first foreign-owned public offering to expand its business in China, BlackRock Fund currently has 6 fund products under its umbrella, including 4 partial equity hybrid funds and 2 fixed income products. The latest total net asset value of the fund is 6.297 billion yuan.

According to Choice data, as of June 30th, except for two newly established funds this year, BlackRock Fund's products have a profit and loss split. For example, BlackRock China New Horizon Hybrid A has fallen by 12.43% and 12.34% respectively from the beginning of the year to the present; BlackRock Advanced Manufacturing's one-year holding of Hybrid A and BlackRock Puyue Fengli's one-year holding of Hybrid A increased by 12.27% and 0.87%, respectively.

Coincidentally, on the previous day, June 30th, Xinhua Fund also issued multiple executive change announcements. Among them, Yu Chunling, the former general manager of the company, has been transferred to the position of chairman and has taken on the position of general manager. The reporter noticed that in early March this year, Xinhua Fund issued a statement stating that General Manager Yu Chunling would take over as Chairman, while former Chairman Zhai Chenxi resigned due to personal reasons. After less than four months, Yu Chunling was officially promoted to the position of Chairman.

Public information shows that Yu Chunling has rich experience in the composite financial industry. She has served as the Director of the Funds Bureau of the National Development Bank, the President of the Tianjin Branch, and the Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of China Re Asset Management Co., Ltd. He has served as the Chairman of the Expert Committee of the Dealers Association, a member of the China Bond Index Expert Committee, the Chairman of the Industry Development Research Professional Committee of the China Insurance Asset Management Association, and a Director of China Everbright Bank. Currently, he also serves as the Executive Director of the China Finance 40 Person Forum.

In addition to the change of chairman, several senior executives of Xinhua Fund have also undergone job changes. Among them, Zhang Zongyou, the former joint chairman, resigned as the joint chairman on June 28th due to work arrangements, and Cui Fengting, the deputy general manager, took over as the secretary of the board of directors on the same day. Colleague, there has also been a large-scale personnel adjustment in the company's board of directors.

The reporter noticed that in recent years, the actual controller of Xinhua Fund has changed multiple times, and the current actual controller is Financial Street Group. In February of this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved Beijing Financial Street Investment Co., Ltd. to become the actual controller of Xinhua Fund. Equity penetration shows that the actual controller of Beijing Financial Street Investment Co., Ltd. is the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Xicheng District, Beijing.

As a public fund company established in 2004, Xinhua Fund has been developing for 19 years, but has not kept up with the pace of industry expansion and its development speed is relatively lagging behind. As of now, the fund company has a total of 50.4 billion yuan in public funds under management, ranking 81st among over 150 peers.

On the same day that Xinhua Fund announced the arrival of a new chairman, Morgan Fund also issued an important personnel change announcement, appointing Wang Qionghui as the company's general manager and legal representative. The announcement also shows that he has served as the President of Morgan Asset Management China, Head of Institutional Business in China, General Manager and Legal Representative of Morgan Asset Management Limited.

In recent days, a group of fund companies including Galaxy Fund, Industrial Fund, and Fuanda Fund have successively announced changes in their executives. According to data from Tonghuashun, as of July 2nd, there have been changes in the executives of 37 fund companies since June, involving 26 fund managers.

The Dilemma of Small and Medium sized Public Funded Talents

As the "helmsman" of a company, the importance of core positions such as chairman and general manager of a fund company is self-evident, so personnel changes often receive market attention. The personnel changes of the above-mentioned fund companies are just the tip of the iceberg of frequent changes in the fund industry's leaders.

According to statistics from First Financial News, as of July 2nd, a total of 182 senior executives under 86 fund managers have changed since the beginning of this year, while the number of senior executives changed during the same period last year was 168, involving 89 fund managers. It can be seen that the number of executives in public funds has slightly increased this year.

From the perspective of job changes, the replacement of deputy general managers is the most frequent, with 84 deputy general managers experiencing job changes in the first half of the year, involving a total of 54 fund companies. 35 and 37 senior executives at the level of chairman and general manager respectively have undergone changes, involving more than 20 fund companies.

The reporter noticed that the fund companies that experienced changes in executives were mostly small and medium-sized public fund managers or new public funds. Data shows that as of June 30th, more than two-thirds of the fund managers within the aforementioned statistical scope have a net asset value of less than 100 billion yuan under management, and nearly 30 even have a net asset value of less than 10 billion yuan.

In addition to the aforementioned BlackRock Fund, as a newly established fund company in 2020, Yimi Fund has developed a scale of 814 million yuan to date; The management scale of small and medium-sized public funds such as Beixin Ruifeng Fund, Yimin Fund, and Mingya Fund does not exceed 5 billion yuan.

Obviously, in the booming development of the public fund industry, various small and medium-sized fund companies are experiencing various development difficulties, and unstable core management is one of them.

"Behind the change of executives is actually the current fierce industry competition." A fund industry insider in South China told reporters that in recent years, the number of fund companies has been increasing, and it is normal for outstanding talents to flow. Relatively speaking, there are indeed more situations in small and medium-sized institutions.

The person further stated that in recent years, shareholders have become increasingly strict in their assessment standards for executives. Factors such as whether the general manager or deputy general manager aligns with the company's development philosophy and whether they can take responsibility for business management will lead to job changes. Small and medium-sized fund companies are facing greater performance evaluation pressure, which may be the main reason for frequent changes in such executives.

"Core executives have a certain impact on the stability of the team, investment and research construction, channel construction, etc. If the frequency of changes is large, it may also reflect some issues in corporate governance, and may lead to a decrease in management stability and lack of coherence in decision-making." He further told reporters that core executives play a crucial role in the development of fund companies, and "unstable military morale" may even be directly reflected in the company's fund size.

"Generally speaking, a general manager or deputy general manager is a professional manager hired by an institution, requiring years of investment research and management experience, and will be recruited through market-oriented methods." A large fund company insider told reporters during a conversation that executives recruited through market-oriented methods need to go through some adjustments in the early stages, such as in terms of shareholder style and demands.

When it comes to some small and medium-sized fund companies often wanting to open up the situation through a change of leadership, he said that "changing leadership" cannot directly solve performance problems, and too frequent personnel turbulence may bring certain uncertainty and risks to the stability and business development of the company. "The addition of new executives requires a process of adaptation with the platform." Therefore, when making choices, careful consideration should be given to long-term development.