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this indicates that over-reliance on a single large-scale fund in the hope of overtaking others is likely to be a high-risk game behavior. without sustainable large institutional resources and a stable corporate operating environment, it is difficult for small and medium-sized fund companies to establish their own core competitiveness. once strong institutional clients withdraw, fund companies often fall into a passive situation.

according to the announcement of qianhai united fund in mid-august, the public offering plans to hold a qianhai united hongyuan pure bond fund unitholders meeting to review the relevant proposals for the continued operation of the fund. the meeting voting time is from august 27 to october 8. as of the first half of this year, the fund size was only a little over 1 million yuan. according to the fund's second quarter report this year, the fund's net asset value has been less than 50 million yuan for more than 60 consecutive working days. qianhai united fund has reported to the china securities regulatory commission that it continues to operate the fund.

it is worth mentioning that when qianhai united hongyuan pure bond fund was established in december 2017, its scale was as high as 10.01 billion yuan. even after its establishment, its scale continued to rise, and once exceeded 15 billion yuan in 2018. but at the end of june 2018, the scale of the fund suddenly dropped from 15.036 billion yuan to 3.014 billion yuan. after that, the scale of the fund rebounded to about 9 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, but then declined at a faster rate. by the end of the first half of 2021, the scale fell below 100 million yuan, and it became a mini fund at the end of 2021. from 2021 to the present, the bond market has been hot several times, and the fund has always remained calm.

in fact, there are quite a few such bond funds. the scale of the galaxy mingyi 3-month fixed-term bond fund was also as high as 10.01 billion yuan when it was established in december 2017, but its scale has continued to decline since its establishment, and it is only over 200 million yuan as of now. the scale of the minsheng jiayin china bond 1-3 year agricultural development bond index fund was as high as 22.4 billion yuan when it was established in may 2019, but as of the end of the second quarter of this year, its scale was less than 5.5 billion yuan. the citic construction investment jingsheng bond fund was a fund with a scale of 8 billion yuan when it was established in june 2022, but its scale is less than 600 million yuan as of now.

in addition, guolian an hengxin 3-month regular open pure bond fund was established in december 2021 with a scale of 4 billion yuan, and its scale has been less than 20 million yuan so far. qianhai united hongrui fixed open bond fund was established in march 2018 with a scale of 4.51 billion yuan, and its scale has been less than 10 million yuan so far. pengyang juli 6-month holding period bond fund was established in january 2020 with a scale of 3.204 billion yuan, and its scale has been less than 200 million yuan as of the end of the second quarter of this year.

in addition, as early as december 26, 2023, the size of pengyang chunxu bond fund, which had just been established for a week, also shrank significantly. the fund was established with a scale of 5.09 billion yuan and 263 valid subscribers. according to the fund's first quarter report in 2024, the fund's size dropped to 1.9 billion yuan in just over three months, and as of the end of the first quarter, 54.04% of the fund shares were held by an institutional holder.

the bond funds whose scale has dropped significantly have two obvious characteristics: first, most of them are from small and medium-sized fund companies. second, many funds have too high a proportion of institutions, and their scale has dropped sharply against the background of rapid redemption by holders.

take qianhai united hongyuan pure bond fund as an example. there are only two holders in the fund's fundraising scale of 10.01 billion yuan. except for qianhai united fund's subscription of 10.001 million shares with fixed income funds, the remaining 10 billion shares are held by one holder. at the end of june 2018, the scale of the fund began to decline rapidly, which is closely related to the redemption of holders. according to the fund's 2018 semi-annual report, the fund's total redemption during the reporting period reached 12 billion shares, which offset the total subscription of 4.986 billion shares, and the total shares fell from 10.01 billion shares at the time of establishment to 2.996 billion shares.

when the fund became a mini fund at the end of 2021, qianhai united fund held a shareholders' meeting to review and amend the fund's "automatic liquidation" regulations. if the number of fund unit holders is less than 200 or the net asset value of the fund is less than 50 million yuan for 60 consecutive working days, the fund should be liquidated and the fund contract should be terminated in accordance with the agreement. there is no need to hold a shareholders' meeting for voting. qianhai united fund intends to change it to: the fund manager shall report to the china securities regulatory commission within 10 working days and propose a solution, and hold a fund unit holder meeting for voting within 6 months.

according to the announcement, the proposal was finally passed, and the fund units represented by the participating fund unit holders or their agents were 971,300 units, accounting for 99.82% of the total fund units on the equity registration date. the fund's 2021 fourth quarter report shows that these 971,300 units are held by an institutional holder and were purchased between october 26 and december 31 of that year. in hindsight, this did not get the fund out of trouble. since then, the fund's operations have continued to sluggish. in the absence of other funds, qianhai united fund maintained operations by holding a holder meeting to review the continuous operation plan with the 10 million units originally subscribed.

this bond fund, which once had a scale of 15 billion yuan, once supported half of qianhai united fund company. according to ifind data from tonghuashun, when the scale of qianhai united hongyuan pure bond fund reached 15 billion yuan, the management scale of qianhai united fund was about 32.7 billion yuan. later, due to the rapid decline of the fund scale, the management scale of qianhai united fund once shrank to about 16 billion yuan. as of now, the company's management scale is still hovering around 10 billion yuan.

similarly, when the galaxy mingyi 3-month fixed-term bond fund was established in december 2017, the total size of galaxy fund's approximately 50 funds was less than 80 billion yuan, but this fund alone accounted for 10 billion yuan. as of now, galaxy fund has 85 fund products under management, with a management scale of less than 100 billion yuan.

"these situations reflect the current development status of non-leading public funds in the bond fund field." a public fund market insider in the southern region told china securities journal reporters that with the scale of fixed income products such as bond funds rising, the overall management scale of the public fund industry has approached 3.2 trillion yuan, but from the perspective of a single fund company, the leading public funds are still the ones that can "continue to make money."

the market insider specifically analyzed that for all fund companies, bond funds are suitable as the "basic plate" for development. bond funds are a business mainly for institutional investors, and they place high demands on the customized services and differentiated allocation capabilities of fund companies. in recent years, some small and medium-sized fund companies (such as qianhai united) have indeed expanded their scale through some institutional customized products in order to achieve overtaking. however, these institutions have relatively limited resources and are also very strong. they often hold shares at a very high proportion and have absolute say. once a large number of redemptions are made after the fund has made a floating profit, the size of the fund will shrink significantly in a short period of time and eventually go to liquidation. in retrospect, this approach has a certain gaming element.

"the initial scale of these funds was over 10 billion yuan, which shows that they had a certain degree of market competitiveness. the subsequent large-scale redemption by institutional investors was not only due to the fund companies themselves, but also closely related to the shareholders. some companies may have been in a period of growth at the time, but later due to changes in shareholders, sales of equity at a large discount, etc., it would have an impact on the company's management and investment research team. a good iron must be hard to forge." a brand manager of a small and medium-sized public fund in south china told a reporter from securities china.

it is also worth pointing out that the past performance of these funds, which have been declining rapidly, is actually not bad. in the process of operation, the money-making effect will attract some small and medium-sized investors. they only see the appearance of making money, but are unaware of the fact that they are going to be liquidated. in this process, the fund companies have completed their institutional business, and individual investors may become "victims" of information asymmetry.