11月28日Description from Financial Alliance (Reporter Yan Jun) Another deputy general manager of a fund company has resigned, this time from a foreign-owned mutual fund.

Recently, He Xiaochun, deputy general manager of Morgan Stanley, resigned and also stepped down from managing five funds including Great Morgan Quality Life Selection, with assets under management of 1.233 billion yuan before his departure.

Currently, it is not uncommon for deputy general managers of fund companies to leave, including Huang Hai, Feng Mingyuan, and other deputy general managers responsible for research to leave their positions based on their focus on research. However, this time He Xiaochun's departure from all products has also added some speculation to the market.

In addition, the company has new senior executives joining, with former Huabao Fund Executive Deputy General Manager Liu Xin joining Morgan Stanley Fund as a deputy general manager. Financial Union reporters learned that Liu Xin has already started his new role. On July 30th this year, Liu Xin left Huabao Fund for personal reasons.

He Xiaochun resigns as deputy general manager in a manner of selling off all holdings

On November 23, Morgan Stanley Fund issued an announcement regarding changes in senior management, where deputy general manager He Xiaochun resigned due to personal reasons. On the same day, he also stepped down from five funds in management including Great Morgan Quality Life Selection, Great Morgan Privileged Selection held for six months, Great Morgan Emerging Industry, Great Morgan Leading Advantage, Great Morgan Pleasant Harmony, and all other products.

He Xiaochun, a veteran with 24 years of experience in the capital markets and over ten years of investment experience, previously served at Century Securities and Golden Eagle Fund. In December 2017, he joined Morgan Stanley Fund and has held positions as assistant general manager and director of equity investment department. He currently serves as deputy general manager, director of equity investment department, fund manager, and chairman of the investment committee.

In terms of style, he, who comes from a futures background, has a unique style, with a high tolerance for volatility and being relatively aggressive, which is reflected in his performance. Looking at the performance of the products he stepped down from, the early-established Great Morgan Quality Life Selection and the Great Morgan Leading Advantage both achieved returns of 85.14% and 43.36% respectively during his tenure. Products established at market highs from 2020 to 2022 all ended up with negative returns during his tenure.

In 2023, in a challenging market situation, He Xiaochun launched a new product, Great Morgan Premium Selection. However, by this June, after about a year of running, the fund was liquidated due to the fund's net asset value falling below 50 million yuan for 50 consecutive working days.

With the market recovering, He Xiaochun's performance has also significantly improved recently. Looking at the Great Morgan Emerging Industry Stocks he manages, the increase in the past 3 months has been nearly 40%.

As an industry veteran, He Xiaochun has a clear logic from the industry to individual stock selection. In an interview with Caijing Network journalists in 2023, he stated that extreme market conditions require an increasing psychological tolerance for investment, inevitably causing anxiety. He mentioned that as the macroeconomic growth rate slows down, truly valuable assets will be relatively scarce. At the same time, he also believes that if looking from a medium to long-term investment perspective, there is no need to overthink, as the medium to long term will still return to the fundamentals of industries and companies.

During his time at Morgan Stanley, besides daily investment research, He Xiaochun was also responsible for managing the company's equity investment research team. On the one hand, by taking an integrated approach to investment research as the core, he leveraged talent advantages to promote team complementarity; on the other hand, he refined investment concepts and standardized investment processes.

He Xiaochun's recent complete stepping down has led to speculation in the industry that he may also leave Morgan Stanley. In the industry's view, nearing the end of the year, changes in institutional executives and investment research are normal occurrences. As November nears its end, due to performance rankings or career planning, fund companies may see frequent personnel changes.

Renewal of the executive team within one year.

Since June 2021, Blackrock Debt Strategies Fund Inc became the first wholly foreign-owned fund management company to be approved for business expansion. Afterwards, Teda Horizon, Robomay, Fidelity, Schroder Fund, Morgan Asset Management, Morgan Stanley, Allianz Fund, and Link Fund have successively obtained approvals, increasing the number of wholly foreign-owned fund management companies to nine.

In February 2023, Morgan Stanley Fund became the third joint venture to foreign-controlled mutual fund approved after Invesco and Morgan Asset Management.

Compared to newly approved wholly foreign-owned public funds, joint venture to foreign-controlled fund companies have a certain foundation for business expansion in the mainland and are actively exploring new businesses. For example, Morgan Asset Management has actively entered the China A50 ETF and China A500 ETF markets. Both funds are currently among the top in terms of size, especially with China A500 ETF surpassing 10 billion; Invesco Fund is well-known in global allocation and retirement sectors, with Invesco India QDII highly sought after by investors.

In terms of Morgan Stanley Fund, there are bright spots in equity products this year. By the end of October this year, Le Zhiyong's Mega Morgan Digital Economy ranked first in the equity hybrid fund, with a nearly 58% annual return. However, from the perspective of overall business development, the company is slightly lacking in sharpness, with more external perception focused on the turnover of company executives.

On January 2, 2024, Deputy General Manager Zhou Wenteng announced that he had joined in October 2023, bringing extensive experience from the foreign insurance industry to Morgan Stanley Fund where he is responsible for investments and international business.

By April, Morgan Stanley Fund General Manager Wang Hongpin resigned for personal reasons. This legendary female executive had previously led two joint venture public funds. Zhou Wenteng succeeded Wang Hongpin. At the same time, Morgan Stanley Investment Management appointed Huang Min as the new head of the newly established Greater China business unit, emphasizing the strong push for investment management business in China.

Meanwhile, in March this year, former Deputy General Manager Li Jin also resigned for personal reasons; on May 16, former Inspector Xu Feifei left for personal reasons, replaced by Mao Hui. Mao Hui has worked in various law firms such as Jintian Cheng, Yuantai, Beijing Hankun, and positions at Shenwan Lingxin and Yongyuan Fund.

Certainly, after the transition from joint venture to foreign control, based on changes in shareholders, institutions will go through a round of adjustments and changes in senior management. This year, many wholly foreign-owned fund companies such as Allianz Fund, UBP Fund, BlackRock, Fidelity Fund, and Invesco Fund have seen changes in top executives.

Generally speaking, foreign shareholders tend to appoint individuals with foreign investment experience as general managers, more directly, choosing senior executives from shareholders for roles in the Greater China region. This role demands a profound understanding of the shareholders' investment philosophy and familiarity with local practices. Following changes in the general manager position, changes in roles such as inspectors are more common, while changes in deputy general managers are more focused on business considerations.

Following the series of executive changes, market expectations are particularly high for the future development of Morgan Stanley. Regarding the outlook for the Chinese market, Zhou Wenxu pointed out at the 2024 Shanghai Stock Exchange International Investors Conference that from a global allocation perspective, the Chinese capital markets offer a wide and diverse range of investment opportunities, providing unique investment returns for international funds. For asset management companies, the Chinese asset management industry is vast and full of potential, implying tremendous development opportunities.

As for the future development path of Morgan Stanley, Zhou Wenxu stated that by increasing product innovation and introducing mature overseas experiences, they will promote the expansion of domestic investment tools, providing investors with a more diverse and rich selection of products. Morgan Stanley Investment Management's years of professional accumulation in active investment, cross-border investment, sustainable investment, and retirement investment will provide the company with an inherent advantage in product innovation.