Hundreds of millions of funds chased highs into the market, then China Bank Fund's "active equity number one" resigned in a clearance-style exit!

Ask AI · How will Liu Xinqun stabilize the investment research team after taking office?

Recently, Bank of China Investment Fund announced a manager change, revealing that the largest active equity fund manager under the company, Zheng Ning, has stepped down from all managed products. As of 2025, according to Wind data, Zheng Ning’s management of the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid A achieved an annual return of 82.67%, ranking second among public medical-themed funds. This product attracted nearly 1 billion yuan of inflows in the third quarter of last year when its net value was high, but now, with a decline of over 25%, most of that capital is essentially trapped.

Compared to Zheng Ning’s sudden departure, investors are more concerned about the fact that the managers taking over these four products are all “newcomers” with less than a year of management experience in public funds. According to the announcement, within just three months, key fixed income and equity managers at Bank of China Fund have resigned en masse. As a joint venture bank-affiliated public fund company between Bank of China and BlackRock, how will the new Chairman Liu Xinqun, who has recently taken office, reverse the shrinking active equity business and retain core talent has become a market focus.

High performance “highlight” followed by sudden departure

“Number One” in active equity funds resigns abruptly

2025 was a peak year for Zheng Ning’s career at Bank of China Fund. Wind data shows that by the end of 2025, Zheng Ning managed assets totaling 7.703 billion yuan, accounting for 33.84% of all active equity funds under Bank of China Fund (totaling 22.765 billion yuan), making him the largest active equity fund manager in the company.

It is disclosed that Zheng Ning previously worked as a stock research manager and senior stock research manager at Taikang Asset, as well as a researcher and senior researcher (head of the pharmaceutical team) at Zhongceng Fund. He joined Bank of China Fund in 2022 and began managing his first public fund in July 2022. He has resigned from four products this time: Zhongceng Innovation Medical Hybrid, Zhongceng Healthcare Hybrid, Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid, and Bank of China Big Health Stock.

In terms of performance, in 2025, Zheng Ning’s management of the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid A achieved an 82.67% annual return, ranking second among medical-themed public funds, just behind the China Fund Trust Global Medical & Biological (88.43%). Thanks to this excellent performance, the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid attracted large inflows during its rapid rise in the third quarter of 2025. According to Wind data, its share increased by 640 million units in the third quarter and continued to grow by 235 million units in the fourth quarter. By the end of 2025, the product’s total scale reached 2.196 billion yuan, a 1.76-fold increase from the end of the second quarter.

Source: Wind

However, investors who chased the high did not see continued gains. As of March 23, 2026, the unit net value of Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical A was about 1.51 yuan, roughly back to the lowest point of 1.50 in the third quarter of 2025, with a decline of over 25% from the peak last year. This means that the roughly 1 billion yuan of funds bought at the high in the third quarter of last year are now mostly at a loss.

Hundreds of millions of “chasing high” funds trapped

New managers all “rookies”

Zheng Ning’s departure timing has attracted attention. Besides the roughly 1 billion yuan of funds trapped in the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid, the previous round of chasing high in the largest and longest-managed product, Zhongceng Innovation Medical Hybrid, has just been “unlocked.”

Wind data shows Zheng Ning started managing the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid in July 2022. By the end of 2025, the product’s scale reached 4.494 billion yuan. Before Zheng Ning took over, the net value of the Bank of China Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid A once touched around 2.24 in 2021, then continued to decline, with a maximum drawdown of nearly 55%. Since 2024, the net value has gradually recovered, reaching a new high of 2.57 in the third quarter of 2025. But as of March 23, the net value had fallen back to about 1.84.

Source: Wind

Whether it’s winning second place in the annual performance of medical-themed funds or leading billions of funds to “fill the gap,” Zheng Ning delivered impressive results in 2025, and many investors held high expectations for him. Wind data shows that in Q3 and Q4 of 2025, both Zhongceng Innovation Medical Hybrid and Zhongceng Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid experienced continuous net subscriptions.

However, as many investors came seeking opportunities, Zheng Ning’s “sudden departure” not only left behind short-term “trapped” high-chasing funds but also raised concerns about the management experience of his successors. According to the announcement, the four products Zheng Ning resigned from are now managed by two fund managers, both “newcomers” in public fund management. Among them, Zhongceng Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical Hybrid and Zhongceng Big Health Stock are managed solely by Wang Fangzhou, who joined Bank of China Fund in 2017, starting as a researcher and assistant fund manager, with less than 1 year of public fund management experience. Zhongceng Innovation Medical Hybrid and Zhongceng Healthcare Hybrid are managed by Li Wenguang, who also joined in 2017, with only 0.26 years of public fund management experience.

In the current volatile pharmaceutical sector, handing core products over to managers with less than a year of experience poses significant risks to performance stability and investor confidence. On the discussion board of Zhongceng Innovation Medical Hybrid, some investors asked, “Zheng Ning is gone, can I still hold?” and others directly said, “You didn’t even announce the manager change, I’ve already sold out because I think this manager is not good.”

Fixed income and equity “big names” resign one after another

How will the “parachuted” chairman seek new breakthroughs?

The reporter noted that shortly after Zheng Ning’s abrupt resignation, on January 15, 2026, Xing Ke, co-investment director (fixed income) at Bank of China Fund, also officially resigned due to “personal reasons,” and had already stepped down from all managed products on December 19, 2025. In just three months, key figures in both fixed income and equity sectors at Bank of China Fund have left.

As a joint venture fund management company backed by China Bank (with 83.5% held by Bank of China and 16.5% by BlackRock), Bank of China Fund has long exhibited a “strong fixed income, weak equity” pattern.

Wind data shows that by the end of 2025, Bank of China Fund’s total assets under management reached 733.308 billion yuan, with fixed income products (money market + bonds) accounting for 94.37%, while active equity funds were only 22.765 billion yuan, about 3.1%. Historically, in 2020 and 2021, the company’s active equity fund scale reached 36.524 billion and 31.347 billion yuan respectively, with a nearly 40% decline over five years, indicating a clear shrinking trend in equity business.

Against this backdrop, on December 10, 2025, Liu Xinqun was officially appointed as Chairman and legal representative of Bank of China Fund. According to his publicly available resume, this new leader, holding a PhD in Statistics from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, has mainly worked within the Chinese banking system, with no prior experience in public funds. He previously served as assistant general manager of the treasury at Bank of China and as president of the Shenzhen branch, later promoted to president and party secretary of the Shenzhen branch in 2020.

However, just months after taking office, the new chairman faced consecutive adjustments of core investment research personnel. How to stabilize the team and reverse the decline in the equity business has become a major challenge for Liu Xinqun. Backed by two major international financial shareholders, how Bank of China Fund can stabilize its investment research team and strengthen its active equity shortfalls under the new management will be a key focus for the market and directly impact the long-term interests and trust of many holders.

Report by: Huang Shunwei, Nandu · Wan Cai She