China fund’s 618 per cent return in 10 years shows it’s putting money where its recommendation is
Longrising Asset Management allocates half of its assets in cash, as it’s concerned about China’s economic outlook and the trade war with the US
China’s struggling stock market isn’t bottoming out just yet, judging by the holdings of a fund that’s made a 618 per cent return since it started in 2008.
Beijing Longrising Asset Management, an equity-focused fund manager that oversees about 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), has 10 billion yuan of that in cash. The fund’s top executives are worried about China’s economic outlook and the trade conflict with the US, and expect that the extremely bearish sentiment toward equities may take years to recover.
“There are too many uncertainties in the economy, even though a lot of stocks are starting to look attractive at these prices,“ said Zeng Xiaojie, general manager at Longrising, in an interview in Beijing last week. “We plan to keep our market exposure at a moderate to relatively low level for a while.”
Longrising illustrates the depth of pessimism among China’s domestic asset managers, saddled with trying to find winners in the world’s worst-performing major equity market. Turnover is dwindling, suggesting little appetite to buy even with shares at the lowest valuations since 2014.
Longrising’s Stock Selection Fund, the firm’s flagship strategy, has returned 618 per cent since its July 2008 inception, according to data from Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management, which tracks so-called private funds such as Longrising. These products are open only to institutions and wealthy individuals, those deemed sophisticated enough to invest in products governed by looser rules.
The Shanghai Composite dropped 3 per cent in the same span. Still, Longrising’s fund has succumbed to losses this year, down 14 per cent through the end of July, about the same as the broad market’s drop.
