Wang Yawei in the fog

The former "public offering brother" fell into disconnection

Written by | Liu Xingzhi

Edit | Wang Jing

On October 14, Wang Yawei, a former "public fundraising brother" who had not appeared for a long time, supported Huawei in the circle of friends and indirectly responded to rumors from the outside world that he was "suspected of missing contact".

The reason why it is suspected of missing contact is because there were two rumors in half a year that Wang Yawei was taken away for investigation, and he twice forwarded articles on WeChat moments to "refute rumors" on the side; But at the same time, according to media reports, people close to Wang Yawei could not contact him through WeChat, phone and other channels.

Most recently, on October 13, market sources reported that Wang Yawei had been detained and investigated since August in connection with Zhu Congjiu's case. According to public information, Wang Yawei and Zhu Congjiu's wife have worked together in Huaxia Fund for many years. That night, Bento Finance tried to ask Qianhe Capital, founded by Wang Yawei, for verification, but the phone was not answered.

On the evening of October 13, Qianhe Capital said that the news that Wang Yawei "assisted in the investigation" was not true, and Wang Yawei was also working normally in the company. On October 14, Wang Yawei's circle of friends rarely changed three articles to show "refutation of rumors".

But these actions have not completely dispelled the doubts of the outside world.

Wang Yawei is one of the earliest batch of public fund managers in China, in 2007 the Shanghai Composite Index exceeded 6,000 points, equity investment into the public vision, Wang Yawei managed the Huaxia large-cap fund in 2006, 2007 respectively 154.49%, 226.24% of the yield, in the market dominance, Wang Yawei became famous. However, at the peak of his reputation, in 2012, Wang Yawei chose to retire bravely, established Qianhe Capital, and entered private equity.

Now, the former "public offering brother" has attracted attention again, not because of performance, but because he is involved in the old case of his old employer, Huaxia Fund.

As early as 2014, many people in Huaxia Fund were found to be in the "rat warehouse" problem, fund managers Tong Ting, Luo Zeping and others were investigated, and Wang Yawei was also involved. In mid-July this year, Guo Shuqiang, the former head of institutional business of Huaxia Fund and later in charge of Tianhong Fund, was taken away for investigation.

In addition, in May this year, Zhu Congjiu, who had served for the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai Stock Exchange for 20 years, was taken away for investigation, and his wife Fang Ruizhi was the inspector general of Huaxia Fund in her early years, and worked with Wang Yawei and Guo Shuqiang for many years.

Now that the old case has been brought up, Wang Yawei, as the core figure, has once again been caught in the vortex.

Before becoming the "first brother of public fundraising", Wang Yawei was famous - in 1989, 18-year-old Wang Yawei was admitted to the Department of Electronics of Tsinghua University as a champion of the Anhui college entrance examination and graduated in 1993.

Two years later, based on his interest in securities investment, 24-year-old Wang Yawei gave up his profession and devoted himself to the financial circle and entered Huaxia Securities Company. In 1995, when he stepped into the door of the Beijing Dongsi Business Department of Huaxia Securities, the largest securities business department in China at that time, the gears of fate began to turn.

In fact, devoting himself to the financial industry was the common choice of many high-caliber students at that time, and Jiang Ping, who was named the "Top 100 Traders" of the year by the famous professional magazine "Trader" on Wall Street, was the champion of the Yangzhou college entrance examination; SoftBank China partner Anlan Song is a science champion in Zhejiang; Hillhouse's Zhang Lei is a champion of Henan liberal arts.

In 1998, Huaxia Fund Management Company began to be established, led by Fan Yonghong, the "godfather" of China's fund industry and founder of Huaxia Fund.

After the establishment of Huaxia Fund, Wang Yawei entered the group of the first product Xinghua Fund, and the members of the group later became influential figures in the fund industry, in addition to Wang Yawei and Guo Shuqiang, there were Teng Tianming, the general manager of Huaxia Fund, and Dai Yongyi, deputy general manager of ICBC Fund.

Wang Yawei was only 28 years old when he participated in the management of the 2 billion Schinghua Fund, and this fund industry debut may be considered a young ambition, but it did not make him famous. In 2000, Schmidt Fund failed to outperform the Shanghai Composite Index, and in 2004, Huaxia Growth Fund beat the index, but its performance was not outstanding among its peers.

The turning point occurred in 2005, when Wang Yawei went to the Wharton School in the United States and studied part-time for 3 months. What he learned at Wharton is now unknown, but after returning to China, Wang Yawei began the "road to consecration".

At the end of 2005, Wang Yawei took over the Huaxia Large Cap Fund as a fund manager, and the following year the fund ranked among the top 10 in its category in a single year, and won two championships and one runner-up between 2007 and 2009.

Looking back now, Wang Yawei's "road to consecration" is quite a hero in time. Wang Yawei's debut caught up with the experience of the small bull market in 2000, and taking over the Chinese market coincided with the big bull market. In this round of bull market, the Shanghai Composite Index rose from 998 points to 6142 points, which has never been seen before.

From this point alone, among the later star fund managers, whether it is Zhang Kun, who became famous for liquor, or Gülen, who became famous for medicine, they cannot copy Wang Yawei's myth, after all, most of their careers, A-shares have been staging a "3,000-point defense battle".

In terms of investment strategy, Wang Yawei is also different from other star fund managers later.

Today's investors take Buffett and Munger quotes as a guideline, and Wang Yawei's idol of fund managers is Peter Lynch, who was once known as the best fund manager in the world, and in his 13 years of managing Magellan's fund, the net value of the fund has increased 28 times, and even Buffett said that if he wants to give his grandson a birthday gift, he will give them Peter Lynch's book.

Buffett

In the investment principle, Wang Yawei followed Peter Lynch and insisted on pursuing "low-risk and high-return" investment, and in terms of specific strategies, he specialized in mining restructuring stocks, including *ST Guangsha (now Western Entrepreneurship), *ST Changhe (now BOC Aircraft), Jilin Sengong (now Quanyangquan) and other targets, and obtained excess returns.

Restructuring stocks and low-risk, high-yield value investing may sound contradictory, and Wang Yawei once explained, "investing in restructuring stocks and value investing is not in conflict."

Wang Yawei once said that he would not take a big risk to buy stocks, did not buy stocks that could not be grasped, as for how to avoid the risk of restructuring stocks and seize the opportunities, Wang Yawei's answer was "public information, reasonable speculation, portfolio investment", and "fund managers' independent thinking is precious".

In the highly competitive fund industry, Wang Yawei and his team must have good investment and research capabilities to rank at the top for many years, but it cannot be ignored that in the phased market of restructuring stocks, in addition to Wang Yawei, it seems that only Xu Xiang has become famous by this strategy.

Wang Yawei and Xu Xiang are temporarily bright, the former is a "public offering brother", the latter is a "private placement brother". In November 2015, Xu was arrested on insider trading and stock price manipulation. This year, on the list of 100 richers released by "Yongshang" magazine, Xu Xiang ranked 44th with a value of 1.96 billion yuan, but the outside world generally believes that Xu Xiang's actual net worth far exceeds this figure.

Wang Yawei's investment framework is almost impossible to replicate, and he has reflected on the limitations of his own investment style, saying in 2009 that if it cannot adapt to the development of public funds, he will consider other development paths.

This passage is like a preview, in 2012, Wang Yawei left the public offering when his personal reputation was at its peak, established Qianhe Capital, and devoted himself to private placement.

Wang Yawei became famous in the public fund, but he was also burdened by fame. At the resignation meeting, Wang Yawei said: "When I buy a stock now, I will think about whether retail investors will blindly follow... This hampered my investment decisions. ”

With the blessing of past performance, Qianhe Capital threw out an investment threshold of up to 20 million yuan and a fixed rate condition of 2.5% at the beginning of its opening, but investors still flocked to it.

This time, one year after Wang Yawei stepped on the stroke again and "entered private", the "Interim Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Private Investment Funds" came out, and private equity entered a period of rapid development, and the amount of funds managed by Qianhe Capital once exceeded 30 billion yuan.

After staying away from the public offering industry, Wang Yawei gradually began to keep a low profile, rarely appearing to make speeches. With the changes in the market, Wang Yawei's aura has gradually dimmed, and in 2022, Qianhe Capital's volume in management once fell below the 10 billion mark, and the myth of "public offering brother" has not continued in the private equity industry. Now, Wang Yawei has returned to the public eye, not because of investment performance, but because of an old case.

Wang Yawei's ups and downs are also the epitome of the fate of many contemporaneous financial tycoons.

In February this year, Bao Fan, the founder of China Renaissance Capital, was taken away for investigation. In the Internet venture capital circle, Bao Fan and China Renaissance Capital are quite influential, and companies such as JD.com, 360, and iQiyi have all been clients of China Renaissance Capital; The merger of Didi and Kuaidi, the merger of Meituan and Dianping, etc., are also indispensable to Bao Fan's matchmaking.

Before that, the entire securities industry was already on the verge of rain.

From December 2021, when members of the CSRC's third-term issuance review committee fell off the horse, to June last year, when former Minsheng Securities chairman Feng Henian was taken away, four former officials from the CSRC's issuance supervision department fell in half a year. Zhu Congjiu, who has been close to Wang Yawei, also has experience in the issuance and examination department.

In 2007, when Wang Yawei became famous in World War I, Zhu Congjiu served as the general manager and deputy party secretary of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the following year he was transferred to the assistant chairman of the CSRC and director of the issuance supervision department.

Coincidentally, in 2012, when Wang Yawei retired from the public fundraising, Zhu Congjiu also bid farewell to the financial industry and went to Zhejiang to serve as vice governor. After Wang Yawei switched to private equity, Zhu Congjiu's wife Fang Ruizhi became one of Wang Yawei's main customers.

In addition, in the same month that Zhu Congjiu was transferred to Zhejiang, in May 2012, Fang Ruizhi's old superiors single-handedly promoted Wang Yawei and Guo Shuqiang, and Fan Yonghong, the founder of Huaxia Fund, resigned as general manager and announced that he would "take a back seat". According to Caixin, citing sources familiar with the matter, after Guo Shuqiang was investigated, Fan Yonghong has now avoided abroad.

At present, it seems that Wang Yawei, a former star fund manager, is now involved in the whirlpool of the old cases of Zhu Congjiu and others, and has become a thread in the rectification and investigation of the financial industry; With the deepening of the supervision and investigation of the financial industry by relevant departments, one thread after another is converging into a large network.

This network includes not only the China Securities Regulatory Commission, securities firms, funds, but also banking, insurance and other industries. Since last year, Tian Huiyu of China Merchants Bank, Li Xiaopeng of Everbright Group, Liu Liange of Bank of China, Wang Bin of Chinese Shou, Wan Feng of Xinhua Insurance and other leading financial institutions have been investigated one after another.

Wang Yawei is standing at the crossroads of life, with the advancement of the Zhu Congjiu and Guo Shuqiang cases, whether Wang Yawei's investment myth comes from "independent thinking of fund managers" as he said, will come out of the water.

The entire financial industry is also standing at a crossroads, in February this year, the A-share registration system was implemented, and the issuance review committee was abolished; In July this year, public funds opened a "wave of fee reduction" under the pressure of public opinion, and star fund managers such as Cai Songsong and Gülen withdrew one after another. The era that belonged to Wang Yawei is gradually fading.

Resources:

"Bao Fan Fell in the Spring Breeze" alphabet list

"Feng Henian Involved in Financial Anti-Corruption Storm" Box Lunch Finance

"The era that belongs to Wang Yawei is gone" giant tide WAVE

"Wang Yawei researched this BSE company... Why are these companies favored by institutional investors? 》BSE Information

"Missing for several months, Wang Yawei fell into He Whirlpool" Caixin