Text/Liu Zhentao
Since 2024, there have been frequent changes in senior management in the public market. Wind data shows that as of July 2, 2024, there have been more than 70 senior management changes in the market, involving more than 140 senior executives, including general manager changes.
SPDB AXA Fund, which manages more than 300 billion yuan, has changed its general manager.
On July 2, AXA SPDB Asset Management announced that Yu Beihua, the general manager of the company, will leave his post on July 1, 2024 due to personal reasons and will not be transferred to other positions in the company. At the same time as the departure of general manager Yu Beihua, AXA SPDB Asset Management also announced that Zhang Chi has been appointed as the company's new general manager, with a term of office effective July 1, 2024.
Yu Beihua is a veteran of AXA SPDB Asset Management, having served as the General Manager of AXA SPDB Asset Management since July 2012 and has served for 12 years until his departure, making him the longest-serving General Manager of AXA SPDB Asset Management.
The new general manager Zhang Chi is no stranger, he is also an old man in the market, he was the first general manager of the first wholly foreign-owned public BlackRock fund in China, and resigned from the BlackRock fund in February this year.
At present, the public offering management scale of SPDB AXA Fund has exceeded 300 billion yuan, and there is a phenomenon of "partial department", focusing on fixed income and ignoring equity, accounting for less than 5% of the equity scale.
For Zhang Chi, the new general manager, how to improve the scale development of the company's equity products and further improve the scale while maintaining the fixed income advantage may be a test for him.
In 12 years, the general manager resigned, and the former senior executives of the foreign public offering took over
Founded in August 2007, about 17 years ago, AXA SPDB Asset Management is a Sino-French joint venture bank-based public offering company, and the first of the second batch of bank-based public fund companies in China.
Tianyancha data shows that Shanghai Pudong Development Bank holds 51% of the equity of SPDB AXA Fund, and the controlling shareholder of the company, and AXA Investment of France holds 39% of the equity.
Prior to 2012, the management of AXA SPDB Asset Management was staffed by the French shareholders with two senior executives who were responsible for day-to-day operations and investments, respectively, and reported directly to AXA Investment. The important business of AXA SPDB Asset Management can only be officially carried out after obtaining the consent of the shareholder AXA Investment of France, which is relatively slow.
In particular, the Chinese shareholders, including the general manager, are not allowed to intervene in the right to invest in the management of investment. To a certain extent, this situation has affected the development of SPDB AXA Fund.
According to the data of Tiantian Fund Network, at the end of 2012, SPDB AXA Fund was established for more than five years, and its public offering management scale was only 5.474 billion yuan, less than 6 billion yuan.
In July 2012, SPD Bank announced that it would increase the capital of its controlling SPDB AXA Fund. It was under these circumstances that Yu Beihua joined AXA SPDB Asset Management and was appointed as General Manager.
According to Yu Beihua's personal information, she used to work in China Merchants Bank, where she was in charge of the personal finance department and credit card department, and she is also very familiar with fund products. This may be an important factor in Yu Beihua's appointment as general manager.
After Yu Beihua became the general manager, AXA SPDB Asset Management ushered in a period of rapid development. Wind data shows that at the end of the third quarter of 2013, the public offering scale of SPDB AXA Fund exceeded 10 billion, and the overall scale of the company has been on an upward trend since then.
Four years later, at the end of the third quarter of 2017, wind data showed that the scale of SPDB AXA Fund's public offering exceeded 100 billion yuan. As of the end of March 31, 2024, the public offering management scale of AXA SPDB Fund reached RMB357.024 billion, ranking 26th in the public offering market.
However, when Yu Beihua served for 12 years, she chose to leave the position of general manager of SPDB AXA Fund, and her whereabouts after leaving are still unknown.
Yu Beihua's successor, Zhang Chi, is also an old man in the public market. One of the more well-known resumes was the first managing director of BlackRock funds.
BlackRock Fund was established in September 2020 and is the first wholly foreign-owned public offering company in China. During his tenure as general manager, Zhang Chi led BlackRock Fund to issue 7 public offering products currently under management by BlackRock Fund. Among them, BlackRock China New Vision raised 6.681 billion yuan when it was established.
On February 24, 2024, BlackRock Fund announced that Zhang Chi, the general manager of the company, resigned from the company for personal reasons. Unexpectedly, just 4 months later, Zhang Chi became the general manager of AXA SPDB Asset Management.
AXA SPDB Fund is biased, with equity accounting for less than 5%
Zhang Chi faced many challenges.
First of all, Yu Beihua, the previous general manager, has grown the public offering management scale of AXA SPDB Fund from less than 6 billion yuan to more than 350 billion yuan by the end of the first quarter of 2024 through 12 years, and has entered the top 30 of the public offering market, which is in the top position.
At present, the competition in the public offering market is relatively fierce, and how to increase the scale again when the company's scale is already large enough is a challenge and a problem that the new general manager Zhang Chi needs to face.
Secondly, although the public offering scale of SPDB AXA Fund exceeds 300 billion yuan, it is in the top position, but it is biased, with heavy fixed income and light equity.
Take the end of the first quarter of 2024 as an example. Wind data shows that as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, the scale of SPDB AXA Fund equity products was 1.003 billion yuan, the scale of hybrid products was 8.760 billion yuan, the scale of bond products was 145.165 billion yuan, and the scale of currency products was 197.402 billion yuan.
At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the equity class (equity and hybrid) of AXA SPDB Fund was RMB9.763 billion, less than RMB10 billion, accounting for only 2.73% of the total scale. The scale of fixed income (bond and currency) was 342.567 billion yuan, accounting for 95.9% of the total scale.
In particular, the scale of hybrid products has declined significantly in recent years. Wind data shows that since the end of 2021, the scale of SPDB AXA Fund hybrid products has shown a downward trend, from 21.207 billion yuan to 8.760 billion yuan at the end of the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of more than 12 billion yuan.
From the perspective of product performance, AXA SPDB Asset Management does not have active equity funds at present, and the equity products under management are all index-type passive products. As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, there are a total of 12 funds, and the net value of 10 funds has fallen since their inception.
There are 32 SPDB AXA fund hybrid products, of which 16 funds have fallen in net value since their inception, and 10 of the funds have fallen by more than 10%.
From this point of view, both in terms of scale and product performance, AXA SPDB Fund is relatively weak in terms of equity products, and there is a biased phenomenon of emphasizing fixed income over equity.
The new "National Nine Articles" issued by the regulatory authorities clearly mentioned that it is necessary to vigorously develop equity public funds and greatly increase the proportion of equity funds.
From this point of view, AXA SPDB Fund Management needs to vigorously improve its investment capabilities in the equity field and increase the scale of equity products in the later stage, which is also the challenge that the new general manager Zhang Chi needs to face and do.
On the whole, the departure of Yu Beihua, the general manager in 12 years, and the arrival of the new general manager Zhang Chi, may be a new change for SPDB AXA Fund. We'll stay tuned!