Photo source: Visual China

Buying with the left hand and selling with the right hand, the Bank of Shanghai ushered in new progress in transferring 20% of the shares in the Bank of Shanghai Fund.

According to the official website of the Securities Regulatory Commission, application materials for changes of 5% or more of the shares of the Shanghai Bank Fund were accepted by the regulatory authorities on May 8. According to public information, this transaction means that the Bank of Shanghai transferred 20% of the shares in the Bank of Shanghai Fund. However, the buyer of this transaction has not yet made it public.

If the shares are successfully transferred this time, the Bank of Shanghai will no longer fully own the Bank of Shanghai Fund, and the shareholding ratio will be reduced from 100% to 80%.

In March 2023, the Bank of Shanghai publicly listed and transferred 20% of the shares of the Shanghai Bank Fund. The listing price was 339 million yuan. However, sellers are hard to find. After listing, it has been postponed three times, and the listing price has remained at 339 million yuan. The Bank of Shanghai stated in its 2023 annual report that by the end of the announcement period on July 4, 2023, the equity transaction had been solicited from the intended transferee, and since then it has begun to go through regulatory approval and other processes. According to the Bank of Shanghai, the purpose of this equity transfer is to optimize the structure and strengthen strategic collaboration.

It is worth noting that on the eve of listing and selling 20% of the shares in the Bank of Shanghai Fund, the Bank of Shanghai also bought 10% of the shares. This kind of buy-and-throw operation made the outside world bluntly call it “incomprehensible.”

In November 2022, the Bank of Shanghai spent 150 million yuan to buy 10% of the shares of the Shanghai Bank Fund from China Machinery Industry Group at a discount, making it wholly owned by the Bank of Shanghai. The initial listing price of this portion of the shares was 166 million. After the transfer was futile for more than a year, the price was finally reduced to 150 million yuan before the Bank of Shanghai exercised priority purchasing rights. In other words, after the Bank of Shanghai bought 10% of the shares in the Bank of Shanghai Fund for 150 million yuan, it also plans to transfer 20% of the shares for 339 million yuan. The unit price of sale is 13% higher than the purchase unit price.

The Shanghai Bank Fund was established in 2013 with a registered capital of 300 million yuan. The original shareholders were Bank of Shanghai (holding 90%) and China Machinery Industry Group (holding 10%). In fact, the management scale of the Shanghai Bank Fund has continued to rise in recent years. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company's management scale was 199,771 billion yuan, and the ranking had risen to 33rd place, which is considered a public offering.

With a 100 billion dollar public offering, shares have always been a bad thing. Why are the shares of the Shanghai Bank Fund so hot that they are frequently sold off by major shareholders and two shareholders?

Like most banks that are public funds, the fixed income of the Shanghai Bank Fund is strong, and active equity is weak. According to Wind, the debt base accounts for 64.10% of the total management scale, while equity and hybrid funds account for only 1.33%. Not only is the scale weak, but the performance of the Shanghai Bank Fund's active equity product line is also lackluster. At the end of 2023, fund manager Shi Minjia was dismissed by the company due to poor performance, which attracted attention from the outside world. According to Wind, he owns 3 products, all active equity funds, and their performance during his tenure was 5% below the same category.

In 2023, the Shanghai Bank Fund collected 349 million yuan in management fees, ranking 70th among public offerings in the entire market. At the financial level, in 2023, the operating income of the Shanghai Bank Fund was 388 million yuan and net profit was 147 million yuan, down 2.65% from the previous year.