The departure of former equity star Zheng Ning was not due to poor performance of the funds under his management.

Three months after new chairman Liu Xinqun took office, veteran bank-backed public fund firm BOC Fund saw its equity chief Zheng Ning step down from managing all four products in his portfolio.

According to a recent BOC Fund announcement, Zheng Ning has resigned as fund manager of BOC Innovation Healthcare, BOC Healthcare, BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare, and BOC Big Health due to personal reasons.

Half a month before his departure, co-managers were added to the products solely managed by Zheng Ning, a move often seen as a precursor to a fund manager's exit.

Market rumors suggest Zheng Ning may join a leading public fund firm after leaving.

Zheng Ning's departure poses additional challenges for BOC Fund, which already lacks balanced expertise. Established over 20 years ago, BOC Fund oversees more than 730 billion yuan in public fund assets, but its equity investment and research team remains underdeveloped.

BOC Fund currently employs 51 fund managers, 25 of whom focus on equities. Among these, 40% are "newcomers" with less than three years of experience as public fund managers, having not yet weathered a full bull-bear cycle in the A-share market. Their medium to long-term investment capabilities remain unproven.

Zheng Ning's departure was not performance-related.

According to the Asset Management Association of China, Zheng Ning's fund practitioner qualification has been deregistered, and his employing institution is currently blank.

Public records show that before joining BOC Fund in 2022, Zheng Ning served as an equity research manager and senior equity research manager at Taikang Asset Management, and as a researcher and senior researcher (heading the healthcare sector) at Zhonggeng Fund Management.

At BOC Fund, Zheng Ning became a fund manager, and by the time of his departure, he had less than four years of experience in the role.

On July 1, 2022, Zheng Ning became a co-manager of BOC Innovation Healthcare A alongside then-manager Wu Yin. Wu Yin stepped down on February 2, 2023, leaving Zheng Ning as the sole manager. From October 2022 to December 2023, Zheng Ning successively took on management roles for BOC Healthcare, BOC Big Health, and BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare.

All four products managed by Zheng Ning delivered positive returns during his tenure. As of his departure (data up to March 19), the returns for BOC Innovation Healthcare A, BOC Healthcare A, BOC Big Health A, and BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare A were 39.08%, 71.56%, 46.04%, and 62.43% respectively, all outperforming their benchmarks.

In 2025, as investment opportunities in the innovative drug sector frequently emerged, BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare A achieved an 82.67% return, ranking first among actively managed healthcare-themed funds tracked by Wind. By the time of Zheng Ning's departure, the fund's return for 2026 was -1.49%.

BOC Healthcare A, BOC Innovation Healthcare A, and BOC Big Health A also performed strongly in 2025, with returns of 59.83%, 61.91%, and 59.85% respectively.

Bolstered by this performance, the assets under Zheng Ning's management grew from 4.398 billion yuan at the end of 2024 to 7.703 billion yuan by the end of 2025, making him the most sought-after active equity fund manager at BOC Fund. In terms of assets under management, he was the top active equity fund manager at the company.

However, Zheng Ning's portfolios were characterized by high concentration in top ten holdings and significant overlap between funds.

According to Wind data, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the top ten holdings of BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare A, BOC Innovation Healthcare A, BOC Healthcare A, and BOC Big Health A accounted for 71.66%, 64.5%, 60.24%, and 56.64% of their net asset values, respectively.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, BOC Big Health and BOC Healthcare shared seven identical stocks in their top ten holdings. Similarly, BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare and BOC Innovation Healthcare also had seven overlapping stocks.

Zheng Ning's departure has left many investors who entered the innovative drug sector at its peak in the third quarter of 2025 facing a dilemma: whether to cut losses or hold on.

Newcomer Li Wenguang becomes the leading figure.

On March 6, BOC Fund announced that Li Wenguang would be added as a co-manager for both BOC Innovation Healthcare and BOC Healthcare, working alongside Zheng Ning. Simultaneously, Wang Fangzhou became a co-manager of BOC Hong Kong Stock Connect Healthcare with Zheng Ning.

As early as March 26, 2025, Wang Fangzhou had already become a co-manager of BOC Big Health, managing the fund jointly with Zheng Ning for nearly a year.

How capable are Wang Fangzhou and Li Wenguang, the successors to Zheng Ning's portfolios?

Information shows that Wang Fangzhou joined BOC Fund in 2017, previously serving as a researcher and fund manager assistant. With nine years of experience in the securities industry, he has less than one year of experience as a public fund manager, making him a relative newcomer.

The performance of BOC Healthy Living A, which Wang Fangzhou took over and managed solely starting December 23, 2025, has been poor. Wind data shows that as of March 23, the fund's year-to-date return was -11.92%, underperforming its benchmark by 8.31 percentage points.

BOC Healthy Living A also exhibited poor drawdown control. The fund's maximum drawdown year-to-date was -25.33%, higher than the average maximum drawdown of -13.17% for similar products.

BOC Healthy Living A is also a high-volatility performer. As of March 23, the fund's annualized volatility was 44.36%, compared to an average of 24.35% for peer products.

An analysis of the top ten holdings reveals that BOC Healthy Living A underwent significant portfolio adjustments in the fourth quarter of 2025. Compared to the third quarter, only Hengrui Pharmaceuticals was retained; the other nine holdings had each been held for only one consecutive quarter. Overall, these nine new top holdings performed poorly.

From October 1, 2025, to March 23, 2026, eight stocks—Radiation Technology, Truth Instrument, Chengdu Huawei, Kelun Pharmaceutical, Oriental Microelectronics, Meihao Medical, Polytech, and 37 Interactive Entertainment—declined by -33.07%, -12.23%, -12.02%, -10.46%, -8.7%, -3.19%, -2.99%, and -1.32% respectively, with four falling more than 10%. During the same period, only Sanbo Brain Science rose by 12.46%.

Li Wenguang is also a very "young" fund manager.

His public fund management career began on December 15, 2025, when he became a co-manager of the hybrid bond fund BOC Minli One-Year Holding. As of March 23, Li Wenguang's tenure return for BOC Minli One-Year Holding A was negative at -0.19%, lagging behind its benchmark by 0.15 percentage points.

Ironically, following Zheng Ning's departure, Li Wenguang, who has only been a fund manager for a few months, has become the top active equity fund manager at BOC Fund by assets under management, overseeing 5.317 billion yuan.

Both Wang Fangzhou and Li Wenguang had several years of experience as researchers before becoming fund managers, though their specific research sectors have not been disclosed.

Many investors have expressed disappointment with BOC Fund's personnel arrangements.

Some investors commented, "They're putting in a rookie; I'm planning to exit too," "Why change the fund manager? This new manager's track record isn't promising," "I'm out, good luck to those staying! BOC is too casual changing managers, putting a bond guy in charge. They should at least get someone with healthcare fund experience, like from ICBC Healthcare. No time to waste here," and "The losses are painful, but not selling means there's hope. Innovative drugs will rebound after falling too much. Patience is more important than anything."

Lack of a flagbearer in equities.

Among BOC Fund's 25 equity fund managers, six—Yan Fei, Tu Haiqiang, Zhao Jianzhong, Yang Cheng, Li Jian, and Zhao Zhihua—have over ten years of experience as public fund managers. While this suggests a roster of seasoned investors, few have delivered standout performance.

Specifically, Li Jian has the longest tenure at nearly 19 years and also serves as BOC Fund's Investment Director (Equities) and General Manager of the Equity Investment Department.

Li Jian manages three funds. His assets under management at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 were 984 million yuan, a sharp decrease of 2.363 billion yuan from 3.347 billion yuan at the end of 2024.

Historically, the types of products Li Jian has managed are quite diverse, including active equity funds, pure bond funds, money market funds, and "fixed-income plus" funds (such as balanced hybrid funds and hybrid bond funds). His assets under management have previously exceeded 10 billion yuan.

Li Jian's equity investment performance has been less than ideal. Wind data shows that as of March 23, the one-year, two-year, and three-year returns for Li Jian's Fund Manager Index (public fund biased to stocks) were 3.77%, 7.92%, and 9.32% respectively, underperforming their benchmarks by 9.09, 16.71, and 0.06 percentage points.

BOC Multi-Strategy A, the fund Li Jian has managed the longest, had a year-to-date return of -1.2% as of March 23. Its one-year and three-year returns were 0.93% and 6.6% respectively, both lagging behind their benchmarks.

Furthermore, from 2022 to 2025, the three funds managed by Li Jian—BOC New Return, BOC Multi-Strategy, and BOC Hengli Six-Month (all share classes combined)—accumulated a total loss of 134 million yuan. However, from 2022 to the first half of 2025, these three funds generated total management fee income of 175 million yuan.

A similar situation exists with Yan Fei.

Information shows that Yan Fei has 18.48 years of experience as a public fund manager and currently manages two products: BOC Beautiful China and BOC Macro Strategy A, with combined assets of only 319 million yuan.

As of March 23, both BOC Beautiful China and BOC Macro Strategy A had negative year-to-date returns of -15.67% and -12.39% respectively, ranking in the lower middle among peers. Additionally, the three-year returns for these two funds were -6.68% and 0.09% respectively, underperforming their benchmarks by 16.01 and 8.8 percentage points.

Over the four years from 2022 to 2025, these two funds recorded a combined loss of 38.5978 million yuan, but generated management fee income of 18.7068 million yuan from 2022 to the first half of 2025.

Without a leading figure, BOC Fund is pinning its hopes on internally cultivating equity investment and research talent.

In the past five years, Yan Anqi is the only person who joined the equity investment and research team through external recruitment. Previously, Yan Anqi worked at Noah Fund. The company's typical career path is roughly researcher -> fund manager assistant -> fund manager.

BOC Fund's current chairman, Liu Xinqun, and general manager, Zhang Jiawen, both hail from its shareholder, Bank of China. Neither had prior experience managing a public fund company before their current roles.

BOC Fund's significant lack of balance is well-known.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the company's public fund management scale was 733.308 billion yuan, but its equity fund assets amounted to only 30.397 billion yuan, accounting for a mere 4.15%.

From the end of 2020 to the end of 2024, BOC Fund's equity fund management scale was 63.509 billion yuan, 54.178 billion yuan, 36.998 billion yuan, 32.171 billion yuan, and 25.335 billion yuan respectively, while the company's total fund management scale steadily increased during the same period.