A recent announcement on April 10 confirmed the departure of Li Xiaoxi as Vice President of China AMC (formerly known as China Dacheng Fund Management Co., Ltd.), ending nearly three months of speculation. The notice stated that Li left due to personal reasons, stepping down from his role as Vice President and also ceasing to manage two public funds, with no plans to transition to another position within the company.
With over 31 years of experience in the securities industry, this seasoned investment professional previously managed products worth billions at Huatai-PineBridge Fund, earning a solid reputation for his research and investment capabilities. However, his move from Huatai-PineBridge to China AMC highlighted a contrast between past achievements and current realities. Sources indicate that Li does not plan to exit the capital markets and is likely to move into the private equity sector, leveraging his extensive experience to start a new chapter in his career.
Li's departure is not an isolated incident but reflects a pattern of frequent executive changes at China AMC in recent years. Statistics show that eight Vice Presidents have left the company over the past three years. Li's tenure lasted only a year and a half, raising questions about whether his successor will be promoted internally or hired externally, and whether this change can reverse the company's three-year streak of declining performance.
Li Xiaoxi's resume is impressive, featuring a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a career spanning brokerages and public fund management. Early in his career, he gained experience at China Bank of Trust, Yinjian Industrial, and HanTang Securities before moving to the United States to serve as Managing Director and Fund Manager at Principal Global Equities, where he served clients including sovereign wealth funds, central banks, and multinational corporations. In July 2018, he returned to China to join Huatai-PineBridge Fund, where he was highly regarded as a Wall Street elite and appointed Vice President in August of the same year.
Specializing in equity-focused funds, Li has a preference for sectors such as technology, consumer goods, and healthcare. Starting in February 2020, he managed the Huatai-PineBridge Value Growth Mixed Fund. By the end of that year, the fund's net asset value had reached 10.27 yuan, earning it a place among the top-performing funds. As the manager of this high-profile product, Li was promoted as a star fund manager and successfully navigated multiple market cycles, solidifying his reputation for strong investment research.
On July 11, 2024, Li left Huatai-PineBridge and joined China AMC as Vice President in September of the same year. At the time, China AMC was facing challenges related to declining performance and internal adjustments. Li's appointment was seen as a strategic move to strengthen the company's active equity investment capabilities.
However, Li's performance at China AMC did not match his previous success. While his funds posted positive returns of 11.3% and 15.24% over the past one and two years, respectively, the annualized return was -4.87%, underperforming the CSI 300 Index's 0.77%.
On April 11, 2025, Li began managing the China AMC Advantage Value Mixed Fund, initially co-managing with Shi Xingtao before taking sole responsibility after Shi's departure in July. As of April 9, 2026, the fund's total return during his tenure was 11.63%, underperforming its benchmark by 9.33 percentage points. On August 1, 2025, Li took over the China AMC Value Selection Mixed Fund, achieving a return of 5.99% during his tenure, which was insufficient to reverse the fund's losses since inception. The combined assets under management for these two funds amounted to only 796 million yuan, a significant drop from the billions he managed at Huatai-PineBridge.
Regarding Li's departure, China AMC stated that a smooth transition of investment responsibilities has been completed. The China AMC Advantage Value Mixed Fund and China AMC Value Selection Mixed Fund will now be managed solely by He Jing and Kong Xiaoyu, respectively, with continuity in investment strategy and risk-return characteristics.
As early as March 6, China AMC had prepared for the transition by appointing He Jing and Kong Xiaoyu as co-managers for the two funds, working alongside Li to ensure a seamless handover and maintain stability in investment operations.
He Jing, who takes over the China AMC Advantage Value Mixed Fund, holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Wuhan University and a master's degree from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She has a strong sensitivity to cyclical trends, with expertise covering sectors such as steel, non-ferrous metals, and coal. Her investment approach focuses on selecting stocks with alpha potential by tracking industry trends, aligning well with the fund's value investment orientation.
Since 2016, He has built her career in investment research, working as an analyst at Northeast Securities, Industrial Securities, CCB Wealth Management, and Huatai-PineBridge Fund, gaining broad research experience across multiple fields. She joined China AMC in October 2024 and became a fund manager in December of the same year. She currently manages three funds, with her flagship China AMC Blue-Chip Select Stock Fund delivering a return of 47.01% since she took over on December 11, 2024, demonstrating strong active management skills. Another fund she has managed since August 2025, the China AMC Vision Value Mixed Fund, returned 39.1%. However, the China AMC Advantage Value Mixed Fund, which she began co-managing on March 6, posted a negative return of -7.9% during her tenure.
Kong Xiaoyu, who takes over the China AMC Value Selection Mixed Fund, also brings a strong professional background, holding a master's degree in finance from the University of Rochester. Her investment style is balanced, with a focus on adapting to different market conditions and capturing returns from growth-oriented investments, aligning well with the fund's value and growth strategy. This approach also complements Li's previous focus on technology and consumer sectors.
Throughout her career, Kong has served as an equity fund manager at ZhongOu Fund and CIB Fund, accumulating extensive experience in managing active equity products. This marks her first independent management of such a product since joining China AMC, reflecting the company's confidence in her capabilities.
Li's departure is part of a broader trend of frequent executive changes at China AMC. Public records indicate that at least eight Vice Presidents have stepped down since 2023.
In January 2023, Huang Hui resigned as Vice President to become Chief Compliance Officer. In October 2024, star fund manager Feng Mingyuan stepped down as Vice President to assume the role of Chief Investment Officer, a move the company stated would allow him to focus more on investment research. In November 2024, Vice President Li Shuyan left following regulatory penalties related to a "rat trading" scandal, resulting in fines exceeding 1.54 million yuan. In March 2025, fixed-income veteran Song Jiawang resigned as Vice President to become Chief Fixed Income Investment Officer. In May 2025, Wei Qingkong, responsible for marketing, stepped down as Vice President to become Chief Marketing Officer. In July 2025, Wang Jianhua, overseeing mixed-asset investments and specialized accounts, left for personal reasons. In December 2025, Vice President Lu Li, who managed product innovation and quantitative investing, departed. Li Xiaoxi's departure in April 2026 marks the latest in this series.
Notably, Feng Mingyuan, Song Jiawang, and Wei Qingkong remained with the company but transitioned from management to specialized roles. Such frequent shifts between management and professional positions are uncommon in the industry and have sparked discussions about the company's talent incentives and organizational structure.
Alongside executive changes, the investment research team has undergone significant restructuring. Over the past year, five fund managers have left China AMC, including Liu Xiaoming, manager of the top-performing China AMC Performance Driven Mixed Fund in 2025, who departed in February of this year. Meanwhile, the company hired 11 new fund managers, eight of whom had no prior fund management experience, with most being promoted internally. Among them, Tong Changxi delivered the strongest performance in February, with the China AMC Performance Driven Fund A posting an annualized return of 365.28%.
Beyond Vice Presidents, China AMC has also seen changes in its General Manager and Chief Compliance Officer roles. In early September 2025, former General Manager Zhu Yongqiang retired upon reaching retirement age, and Vice President Fang Jing assumed the role of Acting General Manager. Fang's career includes roles at life insurance asset management companies, China Minsheng Bank, CITIC Securities, China Galaxy Securities, and Forethought Fullgoal Fund. He joined China AMC in August 2020, became Vice President in December 2022, and was formally appointed General Manager in December 2025 after serving as acting manager for about three months, concurrently stepping down as Vice President.
On March 22, 2025, China AMC announced that former Chief Compliance Officer Huang Hui had retired upon reaching retirement age, with Yu Yuanzhi taking over. Yu's experience includes roles at the Shenzhen Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Guangdong Pinrui Law Firm, and China Merchants Wealth Management.
These personnel changes occur against the backdrop of structural transformation within the asset management industry. In 2025, fee reforms and new regulations for bond funds directly impacted traditional business models reliant on management fees. A deeper shift is underway as the industry moves from a star fund manager-driven approach to a platform-based investment research system. By the end of 2025, over 90% of public fund management companies had begun building mid-office investment research capabilities and upgrading to platform-based systems.
China AMC is part of this transformation. In recent years, the company has focused on developing a platform-based and systematic investment research mechanism, dividing its equity team into sectors such as technology, healthcare, consumer goods, cyclical industries, and Hong Kong stocks, as well as styles including quality, growth, and value. This aims to enhance resource integration and overall efficiency through team collaboration.
China AMC was established in June 2006 as the first fund management company controlled by a state-owned asset management company. Its shareholders include China Cinda Asset Management Co., Ltd., holding a 54% stake, and East Topco Limited, a subsidiary of Australian wealth manager Challenger Limited, holding 46%. In June 2025, following the transfer of China Cinda's shares to Central Huijin Investment by the Ministry of Finance, China AMC's controlling shareholder became Central Huijin, making it part of the "Huijin system."
However, this background has not shielded the company from operational challenges. Financial data show that China AMC's revenue and net profit have declined for three consecutive years. In 2022, revenue and net profit peaked at approximately 1.068 billion yuan and 213 million yuan, respectively. In 2023, these figures fell to 937 million yuan and 174 million yuan, representing declines of 12.26% and 18.45%. By 2024, revenue further decreased to 644 million yuan, with net profit at 101 million yuan. The downward trend continued in 2025, with annual revenue dropping 4% year-on-year to 616 million yuan and net profit plunging 34% to 66.0871 million yuan.
Assets under management have also faced pressure. After reaching a high of 137.5 billion yuan at the end of 2024, the company's public fund management scale fell to 117.596 billion yuan by the end of 2025, a 14.5% decline. Its industry ranking dropped from 50th to 60th place, with a slight recovery to 118.2 billion yuan by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
More critically, the composition of assets under management reveals structural challenges. Bond fund assets declined by over 44% to 24.289 billion yuan, while money market funds totaled 56.365 billion yuan, meaning fixed-income products accounted for nearly 70% of the total. Stock fund assets fell by nearly 17% to 7.493 billion yuan, while mixed fund assets grew by 2 billion yuan to 29.379 billion yuan. Active equity assets represented 31% of the total. Overall, the company's annualized return was 5.92%, ranking eighth in the industry.
For China AMC, the choice of the next Vice President is less critical than the broader question raised by the departure of a Wall Street veteran with experience managing billions after just a year and a half: how long will internally promoted newcomers endure under these conditions?
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