Tens of billions of fund managers are leaders in the public market, and while charging high management fees, they should create asset value for investors.
GF Fund Manager Zheng Chengran's fund size exceeded 28.1 billion yuan, and the return of GF High-end Manufacturing Stock C was -37.54% during the year, ranking first in the stock category in the whole market.
Zheng Chengran's fund size of 28 billion yuan ranks 20th in the active equity market, higher than Qiu Dongrong and Cui Chenlong, and is also a top fund manager, who has collected more than 300 million yuan in management fees every year.
Only 1 of the 7 funds under its management achieved a positive return of 41.39%, and the other 6 achieved a loss of more than 20% during their tenure, GF Xingcheng Mix, GF Chengxiang Mix, GF Growth Power Three-year holding hybrid has a loss of more than 40%, significantly underperforming the performance benchmark of the same period.
Long-term heavy PV, but underperforming all thematic index funds
GF High-end Manufacturing Stock C (hereinafter referred to as "GF High-end Manufacturing") was established in September 2017, with a consolidated scale of more than 11.9 billion yuan and a cumulative income of 61.48%.
Zheng Chengran became the fund manager of GF High-end Manufacturing in July 2020, co-managed with the previous fund manager Sun Di, during which he achieved a return of 47.84%.
Subsequently, Sun Di stepped down in August 2021, and Zheng Chengran took over as the only fund manager of the fund. In the quarter when Zheng Chengran took over, GF high-end manufacturing made a significant readjustment and a large proportion of photovoltaic companies. Seven PV concept stocks made it into the top 10 heavy stocks during the quarter.
Half a year ago, the top ten heavy stocks in the first quarter of 2021 were only one photovoltaic concept stock of Rongsheng Petrochemical.
Since then, the fund has opened the road to heavy PV, and the top ten heavy stocks have a long-term high proportion of photovoltaic companies, from the second quarter of 2022 to the present, the top ten heavy stocks in each quarter have more than eight photovoltaic concept stocks.
The top nine of the top ten positions in the latest quarter are all companies with photovoltaic as their main business.
In the annual report, Zheng Chengran has long attached importance to the development of the photovoltaic industry, and the holdings of GF high-end manufacturing stocks have more than 80% overlap with photovoltaic ETFs, becoming a photovoltaic theme fund.
In the second half of 2021, the photovoltaic track ushered in the market, with the PV ETF stage rising by 28.18%, while GF high-end manufacturing stocks also achieved a gain of 15.96%.
Subsequently, the price war dragged down the industry's profits, the valuation of photovoltaic companies was suppressed, and the stock price of the entire track entered a downward trend.
Or due to the high level, the shares of Deye Shares, Jinlang Technology and Trina Solar with heavy positions in the fund fell by more than 50% during the year. In addition, the fund's heavy positions in the second half of 2022 Goodway and JA Technology have continued to decline this year, with their stock prices falling by more than 40% during the year.
In the past 1 year, photovoltaic ETFs fell by 36.59%, and GF high-end manufacturing stocks were dragged down, falling 44.48% in the same period, underperforming photovoltaic ETFs by 7.66 points.
Zheng Chengran, who is optimistic about photovoltaics, has turned a ten-billion fund into a weakened version of photovoltaic ETFs. The fund has also underperformed all thematic index funds in the past 1 year, and the fund manager has selected stocks that are the lowest in the industry.
This heavy PV position adjustment operation brought more than 40% drawdown in the following two years. Since Zheng Chengran took over the management of GF high-end manufacturing stocks alone, the fund's cumulative return has been -46.26%.
Previously, GF High-end Manufacturing once achieved a cumulative return of 200.50% for 4 years in August 2021, but now only 61.48% remains. The fund's C share returned -37.54% this year, underperforming the performance benchmark of the same period by nearly 30 points during the year, while underperforming all equity funds and thematic index funds, ranking first in the same category in the whole market.
The fund's performance in the past 1 year was 44.48%, ranking second in the whole market equity fund, only 0.01% higher than Morgan Core Select C.
Fund manager Cheng Chengran managed the product in deep losses
Statistics found that Zheng Chengran loves the photovoltaic track, and all 7 of its funds, including GF high-end manufacturing stocks, have heavy positions in photovoltaic stocks.
PV track stocks have performed poorly, with 7 funds losing more than 27% in net value this year. The approximate yield performance may have a lot to do with the similarity of positions.
GF New Energy Select Stock A, GF Growth New Momentum Hybrid A, GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Hybrid A, GF Chengxiang Hybrid A, GF Xingcheng Hybrid A, and other 5 funds are newly established in the past 3 years, all of which are in a state of substantial loss.
GF Xingcheng Hybrid A was established in January 2021, with a cumulative income of -46.03%, which underperformed the performance comparison benchmark (-21.52%) by 24.5 points in the same period, and ranked at the bottom (2149/2318) in the past two years (-46.40%).
GF Chengxiang Hybrid A was established in February 2021, with a cumulative revenue of -45.16%, underperforming the performance benchmark in the same period (-23.25%) by nearly 22 points, and ranking at the bottom (2134/2318) in the past two years (-45.89%).
GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Period Hybrid A was established in July 2022, with a cumulative return of -41.66%, underperforming the performance comparison benchmark in the same period (-6.61) by nearly 35 points, and ranking at the bottom of the past 1-year performance (-40.55%) (3308/3345).
GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Period Hybrid A is also a 3-year closed-end fund, which has brought investors a net value drawdown of more than 40% in more than 1 year.
The total size of Zheng Chengran's seven funds is about 28.1 billion yuan, and the management fee income in 2022 alone will exceed 300 million yuan, which is far ahead in the top 30 in the industry. GF High-end Manufacturing Shares alone will have a management fee of more than 200 million yuan in 2022.
With management fees at the head of the industry and many funds causing large losses to investors, this top fund needs to prove the value of management fees with performance.
Tens of billions of fund managers such as Liu Gexiang and Li Wei under GF Fund have also suffered setbacks in performance in recent years, and they have also reinvested in the photovoltaic track to varying degrees.
Fund managers such as Lin Yingrui and Jiang Ke have achieved relatively higher results than the average of their peers with more diversified allocations.
Source: Choice, as of September 26, 2023