Bank of China Fund faces a gap in leadership, with newcomer Li Wenguang becoming the "big brother" at the forefront

Former “Equity King” Zheng Ning resigns, not due to poor fund performance.

Author | Zishi Fenzi

Three months after the new leader Liu Xinqun took office, Zheng Ning, the “Equity King” of the traditional bank-affiliated public fund Zhongyin Fund, resigned from all four products he was managing as a fund manager.

According to a recent announcement from Zhongyin Fund, Zheng Ning resigned due to personal reasons as the fund manager of Zhongyin Innovation Medical, Zhongyin Medical Health, Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical, and Zhongyin Big Health.

Half a month before his resignation, the products managed solely by Zheng Ning had added additional fund managers, which is often a precursor to a fund manager’s departure.

There are rumors that after his resignation, Zheng Ning may join a leading public fund in the industry.

Zheng Ning’s departure makes it even harder for Zhongyin Fund, which already has a skewed focus. Established for over 20 years, Zhongyin Fund has a managed scale of more than 730 billion yuan, but its equity research and investment team is not well developed.

Currently, Zhongyin Fund has 51 fund managers, with 25 in equity funds, of which 40% are “newcomers” with less than three years of experience as public fund managers, who have not yet experienced a full cycle of bull and bear markets in the A-share market, and their mid-to-long-term investment capabilities are blank.

01

Zheng Ning’s resignation is not due to poor performance

From the information on the qualifications of fund practitioners provided by the Asset Management Association of China, Zheng Ning’s fund practitioner qualification certificate status is currently shown as canceled, and the employment institution is temporarily vacant.

Public information shows that before joining Zhongyin Fund in 2022, Zheng Ning served as a stock research manager and senior stock research manager at Taikang Asset Management Co., Ltd.; and as a researcher and senior researcher (head of the pharmaceutical group) at Zhonggeng Fund Management Co., Ltd.

At Zhongyin Fund, Zheng Ning became a fund manager, and by the time of his resignation, his tenure as a fund manager was not yet four years.

On July 1, 2022, Zheng Ning became the fund manager of Zhongyin Innovation Medical A, co-managing with the then fund manager Wu Yin. Wu Yin resigned on February 2, 2023, and Zheng Ning took over management alone. From October 2022 to December 2023, Zheng Ning also successively served as the fund manager for Zhongyin Medical Health, Zhongyin Big Health, and Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical.

The four products managed by Zheng Ning all had positive returns. As of his resignation (as of March 19), the returns for Zhongyin Innovation Medical A, Zhongyin Medical Health A, Zhongyin Big Health A, and Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical A were 39.08%, 71.56%, 46.04%, and 62.43%, respectively, all exceeding their performance benchmarks.

Investment opportunities in the innovative drug sector appeared frequently in 2025, and Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical A achieved a return of 82.67% in that year, ranking first among actively managed products in the Wind medical-themed fund category. As of his resignation, the fund had a return of -1.49% for 2026.

The returns for Zhongyin Medical Health A, Zhongyin Innovation Medical A, and Zhongyin Big Health A in 2025 also performed excellently, at 59.83%, 61.91%, and 59.85%, respectively.

With the support of product performance, the scale of the funds managed by Zheng Ning increased from 4.398 billion yuan at the end of 2024 to 7.703 billion yuan at the end of 2025, making him the most sought-after actively managed equity fund manager at Zhongyin Fund. From the perspective of management scale, he had already become the “king” of the company’s actively managed equity fund managers.

However, the products managed by Zheng Ning also faced issues of concentration in the top ten heavy holdings and overlapping stock positions.

According to Wind data, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the market value of the top ten heavy holdings in Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical A, Zhongyin Innovation Medical A, Zhongyin Medical Health A, and Zhongyin Big Health A accounted for 71.66%, 64.5%, 60.24%, and 56.64% of the fund’s net asset value, respectively.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, there were seven overlapping stocks among the top ten heavy holdings of Zhongyin Big Health and Zhongyin Medical Health, while Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical and Zhongyin Innovation Medical also had seven overlapping stocks.

Regarding Zheng Ning’s resignation, many investors who entered the innovative drug sector at a high point in the third quarter of 2025 are caught in a dilemma of whether to cut losses or continue holding.

02

Newcomer Li Wenguang becomes the “head brother”

On March 6, Zhongyin Fund announced that Li Wenguang had been appointed as a fund manager for both Zhongyin Innovation Medical and Zhongyin Medical Health, managing alongside Zheng Ning. Meanwhile, Wang Fangzhou became the fund manager of Zhongyin Hong Kong Stock Connect Medical, co-managing with Zheng Ning.

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

As the successor to Zheng Ning’s products, how are Wang Fangzhou and Li Wenguang?

According to information, Wang Fangzhou joined Zhongyin Fund in 2017, previously serving as a researcher and fund manager assistant, with nine years of experience in the securities industry, and less than one year of experience as a public fund manager, still considered a “newcomer.”

Wang Fangzhou took over and managed Zhongyin Health Living A alone on December 23, 2025, and the performance has not been satisfactory. Wind data shows that as of March 23, the fund’s return this year was -11.92%, lagging behind the performance benchmark by 8.31 percentage points.

Zhongyin Health Living A also failed to control its drawdown. The maximum drawdown of the fund this year was -25.33%, higher than the average maximum drawdown of -13.17% for similar products.

Zhongyin Health Living A is also a high-volatility “player.” As of March 23, the fund’s annualized volatility was 44.36%, while the average annualized volatility for similar products was 24.35%.

“Zishi Hui” reviewed the top ten heavy holdings and found that in the fourth quarter of 2025, Zhongyin Health Living A underwent significant adjustments in its top ten heavy holdings, keeping only Heng Rui Pharmaceutical, while the other nine stocks were held for only one quarter, but the overall performance of these nine newly added heavy holdings was poor.

From October 1, 2025, to March 23, 2026, the eight stocks including Redic, Chengyitong, Chengdu Huawi, Kelun Pharmaceutical, Dongwei Semiconductor, Meihao Medical, Pulit, and Sanqi Yuhang had declines of -33.07%, -12.23%, -12.02%, -10.46%, -8.7%, -3.19%, -2.99%, and -1.32%, with four of them dropping over 10%. During the same period, only Sanbo Brain Science had an increase of 12.46%.

Li Wenguang is also a relatively “young” fund manager.

His public fund manager career began on December 15, 2025, when he became one of the fund managers for the mixed bond-type secondary fund - Zhongyin Minli One-Year Holding. As of March 23, the return for Zhongyin Minli One-Year Holding A was negative at -0.19%, lagging behind the performance benchmark by 0.15 percentage points.

Ironically, with Zheng Ning’s resignation, Li Wenguang, who had just become a fund manager for a few months, is already the “king” of actively managed equity fund managers at Zhongyin Fund, with a managed fund scale of 5.317 billion yuan.

Before becoming fund managers, Wang Fangzhou and Li Wenguang had several years of experience as researchers, but the details of their research background are not disclosed.

Many investors feel disappointed with Zhongyin Fund’s personnel arrangements.

Some investors said, “We have a new hand, and I plan to run too,” “Why change fund managers? This new manager’s performance is not optimistic,” “He left, and there’s a fortune left! Zhongyin changes fund managers too casually; at least get someone who has managed a pharmaceutical fund, not someone who has only dealt with bonds,” “It hurts to see the drop, but if I don’t cut losses, there is hope. Innovative drugs that have dropped a lot will rebound; patience is more important than anything.”

03

No one to carry the flag for equity

Among the 25 equity fund managers at Zhongyin Fund, six public fund managers, including Yan Fei, Tu Haiqiang, Zhao Jianzhong, Yang Cheng, Li Jian, and Zhao Zhihua, have more than ten years of experience. It seems like a gathering of investment veterans, but very few have outstanding performances.

Specifically, Li Jian has the longest tenure as a public fund manager, nearly 19 years, and also serves as the investment director (equity) of Zhongyin Fund and the general manager of the equity investment department.

Li Jian manages three funds, with a management scale of 984 million yuan at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, significantly shrinking from 3.347 billion yuan at the end of 2024 by 2.363 billion yuan.

In terms of the categories of products previously managed, the products managed by Li Jian are quite complex, involving actively managed equity funds, pure bond funds, money market funds, and “fixed income +” funds (bond-oriented mixed funds and mixed bond-type secondary funds), with the scale of managed funds previously exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Li Jian’s equity investment capability is not ideal. Wind data shows that as of March 23, Li Jian’s investment manager index (public fund equity) had returns of 3.77%, 7.92%, and 9.32% over the past year, two years, and three years, respectively, lagging behind the performance benchmarks by 9.09, 16.71, and 0.06 percentage points.

The fund he has managed the longest, Zhongyin Multi-Strategy A, has had a return of -1.2% this year as of March 23, with returns of 0.93% and 6.6% over the last year and three years, respectively, both lagging behind the performance benchmark.

Additionally, from 2022 to 2025, the three funds managed by Li Jian, Zhongyin New Return, Zhongyin Multi-Strategy, and Zhongyin Hengli Half-Year (combined for all share classes), collectively lost 134 million yuan. However, from 2022 to the first half of 2025, these three funds contributed a total management fee income of 175 million yuan.

A similar situation exists with Yan Fei.

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

As of March 23, both Zhongyin Beautiful China and Zhongyin Macro Strategy A have negative returns this year, at -15.67% and -12.39%, respectively, ranking in the middle to lower tier in their categories. Meanwhile, the returns for these two funds over the past three years were -6.68% and 0.09%, lagging behind the performance benchmarks by 16.01 and 8.8 percentage points, respectively.

From 2022 to 2025, the two funds collectively incurred a profit of -38.5978 million yuan, but the management fee income contributed from the first half of 2022 to 2025 was 18.7068 million yuan.

Without a leading figure, Zhongyin Fund is hoping to cultivate equity research and investment talent internally.

In the past five years, only Yan Anqi has joined the equity research and investment team through external recruitment. Previously, Yan Anqi worked at Nuoan Fund. The company’s cultivation path can roughly be categorized as researcher - fund manager assistant - fund manager.

The current chairman of Zhongyin Fund, Liu Xinqun, and general manager, Zhang Jiawen, both come from the shareholder - Bank of China. Prior to this, neither had experience in managing a public fund company.

It is widely known that Zhongyin Fund has a serious focus imbalance.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the company had a public fund management scale of 733.308 billion yuan, but the scale of equity funds was only 30.397 billion yuan, accounting for only 4.15%.

From the end of 2020 to the end of 2024, the scale of equity fund management for Zhongyin Fund was 63.509 billion yuan, 54.178 billion yuan, 36.998 billion yuan, 32.171 billion yuan, and 25.335 billion yuan, while the company’s overall fund management scale steadily increased during the same period.

(Wind, “Zishi Hui” graphics)