Multiple public funds announced major management changes over the weekend: veteran investors are "completely exiting" their positions, and management scales have generally decreased in recent years.

This weekend, multiple public fund companies announced changes to the fund managers of their funds. Among them are several industry veterans stepping down in what is being described as a “full liquidation-style” departure, including Luo Haoliang, a Huaxia Fund manager with more than 7 years of investment experience, and Bao Lihua, a Yimi Fund manager with more than 13 years of investment experience, among others.

In addition, Wu Zhenhua of Citic-Prudential Fund, Pan Rulü of Soochow Fund, Ma Shenghua of Huaxia Fund, and others also stepped down from all products under their management.

Of note is that the assets under management for many of the aforementioned fund managers generally declined over the past few years. Although some saw an increase in the third quarter of 2024, they then experienced another sharp pullback.

Assets under management continued to trend downward, and multiple fund managers “full liquidation-style” stepped down

From March 28 to March 29, several fund companies released announcements regarding changes to the fund managers of funds under their management. The reporter noted that, among these, five fund managers made “full liquidation-style” departures from funds they managed. Judging from the track records of these fund managers, many are industry veterans.

Specifically, on March 28, Yimi Fund announced that Bao Lihua stepped down as the fund manager of Yimi Kaixin Value Selection and Yimi Xinxuan Quality, effective March 26. She has been involved in the securities industry since April 28, 2008, with investment manager experience of 13.66 years. She has worked at companies including Xingzheng Asset Management and Pioneer Futures.

During her tenure at Yimi Fund, the products Bao Lihua managed were all equity-focused hybrid funds, but their performance was relatively average. Her highest annualized return during her term was 6.70%, for Yimi Xinxuan Quality A. By the end of 2025, her assets under management had fallen back to RMB 234 million.

On March 28, Huaxia Fund announced that Luo Haoliang left his role as fund manager of Huaxia Wensheng Flexible. After his departure, Luo Haoliang no longer managed any products. It is understood that Luo Haoliang is also an industry veteran with 7.46 years of experience as an investment manager, but his personal management scale has declined noticeably in recent years. By the end of the second quarter of 2021, Luo Haoliang’s assets under management reached RMB 7.152 billion; by the end of 2025, the figure had fallen to RMB 935 million.

In addition, Wu Zhenhua of Citic-Prudential Fund, Pan Rulü of Soochow Fund, Ma Shenghua of Huaxia Fund, and others also stepped down from all products under their management over this weekend. Based on their past asset management scale, the products managed by these fund managers all saw substantial declines in scale over the past year. Some had increased in the third quarter of 2024, but then quickly fell back.

It is understood that each of these fund managers has different emphases. For managers of actively managed equity funds, many have deep positions in traditional star individual stocks, such as Tencent Holdings, Meituan-W, Midea Group, Kweichow Moutai, and others. Some fund managers focus on AI hotspots, but their assets under management have been hard to turn around. For example, Wu Zhenhua of Citic-Prudential Fund: among the top stocks in the funds he manages, companies such as InnoCare Optoelectronics, XinYiSheng, and Cambricon have ranked highly. Although individual-stock volatility has been relatively large this year, his annualized return for Citic-Prudential Growth Momentum A reached 23.27%. Unfortunately, the fund’s scale has remained sluggish for a long time; by the end of 2025, its total scale was only RMB 289 million.

Renowned fund managers frequently step down, with large differences in product performance

Recently, there have also been reports of certain well-known fund managers leaving their managed products. Some stepped down from most products under their management, while others made a “full liquidation-style” departure.

On March 27, ABF Global (Xingzheng Global) Fund released an announcement on changes to fund managers. Zhang Xiangdong, the fund manager of two funds—Xingquan Hengtai Hybrid and Xingquan Hengheng Three-Year Holding Hybrid—under its management, stepped down for personal reasons. After this adjustment, Zhang Xiangdong no longer managed any products. Previously, market participants had already speculated about the possibility of changes in his work due to news that the fund would add additional fund managers to the products he managed.

During Zhang Xiangdong’s time at ABF Global (Xingzheng Global) Fund, the subscription scale for Xingquan Hengtai Hybrid at issuance was as high as RMB 40 billion, with an allocation ratio of only 12%, making it a phenomenon-level “hot-selling fund.” However, based on performance, the fund’s annualized return is currently 7.98%, far lower than the annualized return of the A share portion of Jiaoyang Advanced Manufacturing managed by Zhang Xiangdong during his tenure at Bank of Communications Schroder Fund (21.70%).

Of course, market conditions in different periods are not the same. In recent years, many well-known fund managers have experienced large drawdowns in performance. Not long ago, GF Fund announced that Zheng Chengran stepped down as fund manager of GF Growth Momentum. After this stepping down, the number of public funds Zheng Chengran managed decreased from 8 to 7. In terms of performance, during the period he managed the fund, the return for the A share portion was -39.11%, with an annualized return of -12.72%.

In industry view, Zheng Chengran was among the top performers during the earlier trend of investment opportunities in the new energy sector. But as market style switched, similar performance drawdowns also occurred among many excellent fund managers. At the same time, the scale of related products also began to decline, and some fund managers made “full liquidation-style” departures as well.

For example, Zheng Ning, who in 2025 achieved an 82.67% full-year return with Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical and Health Hybrid A—earning second place among that year’s medical-themed product category—stepped down from all fund manager positions for the products under his management. Wind data shows that as of March 27, the fund’s largest drawdown since the beginning of this year reached 20.15%.

Some analysts have pointed out that behind the dense stepping-downs of fund managers are not only short-term performance factors, but also issues related to ranking-oriented guidance in the industry. Once market style changes, it becomes difficult for fund managers within their inherent capability circles to make flexible adjustments to adapt to the market. However, there are also some managers whose stepping down is an active adjustment. In particular, some fund managers with larger scale and more products under management also hope to reduce their own burden by stepping down, thereby driving a reallocation of industry resources.

Daily Economic News