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Our reporter Qiu Li and Chen Feng from Beijing reported

Recently, a document titled "The First Person in the Financial Circle to Tear Up His Boss" was circulated online, attracting the attention of many investors. In the document, a researcher at Caitong Asset Management said that the pension FOF managed by investment director Zhang Wenjun ranked last in performance, and he had others take the exam for him after failing the compliance exam many times, while the chairman Ma Xiaoli owned several luxury houses in Shanghai.

So far, the authenticity of the exposed materials has not been verified. Caitong Asset Management issued a statement saying that the company and related employees have reported to the police. However, this incident has undoubtedly triggered public discussion on the chaos behind pension FOFs. Currently, Caitong Asset Management has two pension-oriented FOFs, all of which have had negative returns since their establishment.

The chairman was revealed to have three apartments in Shanghai

Public information shows that Caitong Asset Management was officially established in 2014 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caitong Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Caitong Securities"). Its office address is in Pudong New District, Shanghai, and its registered capital is 500 million yuan.

As a brokerage asset management company with hundreds of billions of yuan in assets, Caitong Asset Management does not have an advantage in public offerings. Wind data shows that by the end of the second quarter of this year, Caitong Asset Management had 67 fund products with a total fund asset size of 123.728 billion yuan, ranking 59th in the market, but its ranking was mainly supported by fixed-income products, with stock and mixed funds totaling less than 10 billion yuan.

The executive involved in the online exposure material, Ma Xiaoli, is currently the assistant general manager of Caitong Securities and the chairman of Caitong Asset Management. The exposure material pointed out that Ma Xiaoli owns three luxury houses in Shanghai at the same time, with a total value of over 100 million yuan. The whistleblower also raised four questions, including whether the full amount was paid in one lump sum and whether there was a second growth curve to increase income.

To learn more about the situation, a reporter from the China Times contacted Caitong Asset Management on July 30, and the staff said that they would forward the interview email to the relevant department for processing. However, as of press time, the reporter had not received a specific response.

According to the 2023 annual report of China Fortune Securities, China Fortune Asset Management achieved operating income of 1.603 billion yuan for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 6.72%; and achieved a net profit of 463 million yuan, a slight increase of 1.12% year-on-year. During the reporting period, Ma Xiaoli received a salary of 2.95 million yuan from China Fortune Asset Management, and also received tenure incentives and deferred bonuses of 2.3279 million yuan over the years.

Pension FOF fund performance ranks last

In the exposed materials, the researcher introduced herself as a Tsinghua undergraduate, a Shanghai Jiao Tong master, and a hard-working student from a small county. In 2023, her actual performance contribution ranked first, but she ranked last in the annual KPI assessment.

The researcher believes that Investment Director Zhang Wenjun prefers fund managers who can provide emotional value, while fund managers who can actually make money for holders are often not good at providing emotional value to their leaders.

The exposed materials also pointed out that the pension FOF managed by Zhang Wenjun is a "final fund" and ranked last in performance; Zhang Wenjun failed the compliance examination many times, and finally gave the system account to someone else to take the examination for him, and never participated in compliance and risk control training, but only ordered his subordinates to sign in on his behalf.

Screenshots of exposed materials

Public information shows that Zhang Wenjun joined Caitong Asset Management in 2022 and is currently the deputy general manager of the FOF investment department (in charge of work). As of now, Zhang Wenjun has only been an investment manager for 3.93 years, with a total of 2 funds under management, with a management scale of 489 million yuan.

Wind data shows that there are a total of 6 FOF products under Caitong Asset Management (AC shares are calculated together), with half of the returns being positive and half being negative. The product with the highest return since its establishment has a return of 7.30%, and the lowest return is -18.14%.

Among the loss-making FOF products, two are retirement-oriented FOFs, both managed by Zhang Wenjun. In terms of performance, as of July 26, Zhang Wenjun's Caitong Asset Management Kangze Stable Retirement Target One-Year Holding was established less than a month ago, and the rate of return since its establishment was -0.86%; Caitong Asset Management Kangheng Balanced Retirement Target Three-Year Holding had an annual return of -5.64%, and the past week, month, and three months were all negative, ranking at the bottom of the same category. The fund was established less than a year ago, and the latest scale was 78 million yuan.

It is worth noting that the above-mentioned two pension-target FOFs are both initiating types. According to the product contract, the scale needs to reach 200 million yuan within three years after establishment, otherwise they will be liquidated.

Caitong Asset Management said it had “already reported the incident to the police”

In response to the exposed materials, Caitong Asset Management issued a statement saying that recently employee Bian Moumou published false information about the company and related employees on public platforms such as WeChat Moments and WeChat chat groups, seriously infringing on the reputation and legal rights of the company and related employees. "On July 29, Bian Moumou spread false statements and fabricated rumors through WeChat groups, infringing on and leaking the privacy information of company employees, once again trampling on the bottom line of the law, which is extremely bad in nature."

Caitong Asset Management also stated that the company and relevant employees have reported to the police, demanding that Bian stop infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the company and relevant employees and bear the corresponding legal responsibilities.

Up to now, the authenticity of the contents described in the exposed materials has not been verified, but it has undoubtedly triggered public discussion on the chaos behind pension FOF funds. Especially since pension FOF carries the simple desire of providing for the elderly, this incident has caused investors to think deeply about the corporate governance, salary system, talent management, investment research culture, compliance and risk control of financial institutions.

"Retirement target funds have been launched for nearly six years since 2018, but most of them have performed poorly and are difficult to attract investors to subscribe, and their scale cannot be increased. Such vicious cycles are very common." A person from a large public fund in South China told the reporter of China Times that many retirement FOFs ultimately failed to survive the "three-year test" and were liquidated with a scale of less than 200 million yuan. On the one hand, the market has been sluggish in recent years, making channel sales difficult; on the other hand, the level of FOF fund managers varies greatly and their investment capabilities are insufficient.

Mingming, chief economist of CITIC Securities, pointed out that the large number of equity positions and the sluggish stock market are one of the reasons why the returns of pension FOF funds are lower than expected. From the perspective of the market structure, the current pension FOF market concentration is relatively high. In the future, as the scale of the pension market grows, more asset management institutions will begin to make efforts to layout, and the market will usher in more intense competition.

Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, told a reporter from the China Times that fund companies should enhance the scale and strength of equity products, including strengthening investment research capabilities, improving the research and investment capabilities of equity products; improving the risk control system, and increasing the risk-adjusted returns of equity products; focusing on internal talent training and external talent introduction, and building a diversified investment team.

Editor-in-charge: Ma Xiaochao Editor-in-chief: Xia Shencha