Caixin News Agency, January 2nd (Reporter Yan Jun) Foreign funded public offerings have accelerated their product and personnel layout. The first executive change in the public offering industry in 2024 came from Morgan Stanley Fund.
On January 2nd, Morgan Stanley Fund announced Zhou Wengui as Deputy General Manager and Chief Investment Officer. In fact, as early as October last year, there were rumors that Zhou Wengui had already been on duty.
Zhou Wengui had previously worked in the public offering industry at Puyin Ansheng, and also managed money market funds as a fund manager. However, he still has more experience in the foreign-funded insurance industry. Caixin News Agency reporter learned that Zhou Wengui will be mainly responsible for investment, and in addition, he will also be responsible for the international business department.
Market insiders have pointed out that Zhou Wengui's appointment continues Morgan Stanley's consistent business management philosophy around the world, which emphasizes the combination of localization and internationalization.
Important "Deputy" Official Announcement, Rich Experience in Public Offering and Insurance Industry
The appointment of Zhou Wengui is an important step for Morgan Stanley Fund to fill the gap of vice president level executives in investment management.
Morgan Stanley Fund, formerly known as Morgan Stanley Huaxin Fund, became a joint venture in China in June 2008. On February 3, 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved Morgan Stanley's wholly-owned control of Morgan Stanley Huaxin Fund.
The approval of a wholly foreign-owned public offering is seen as a "milestone" event by Morgan Stanley Investment Management. The shareholders also stated that as they further increase their investment in China, Morgan Stanley Management will fully utilize over 40 years of industry experience and expertise in sustainable development and diversified investment portfolio management globally to help domestic clients achieve their investment goals.
After more than a decade of development, Morgan Stanley Fund has established public funds and private asset management product lines such as fixed income, active equity, quantitative equity, and multi asset portfolios, providing diversified investment management services for individual and institutional investors.
From the perspective of the company's executive structure, the current Chairman of Morgan Stanley Fund is Gao Jiewen, and the current General Manager is Wang Hongbin, a veteran public fundraiser. The company also has two Vice Presidents, namely Li Jin and He Xiaochun, who are the Director of the Equity Investment Department of the company.
Zhou Wengui is the newly appointed Deputy General Manager and also serves as the Chief Investment Officer. Based on his resume, he has extensive experience in foreign investment institutions and a background in both public fundraising and insurance.
Specifically, Zhou Wengui holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Peking University, a PhD in Molecular Biology from Northwestern University in the United States, and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Chicago. From 1999 to 2009, he worked at Oppenheimer Foundation in the United States, serving as a researcher and fund manager. Starting from October 2009, I worked at Anson Investment Management Limited (Asia Pacific region) in France. Starting from January 2010, he served as the Deputy General Manager and Chief Investment Officer of Puyin Ansheng Fund. In April 2012, Zhou Wengui left Puyin Ansheng.
My subsequent career experience was mainly in the insurance industry. From August 2015 to May 2019, Zhou Wengui served as the Senior Director of AIA Insurance Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch and China Asset Management Center; From July 2019 to November 2019, served as the Vice President of Asset Management Center at Sino US United Tai Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Ltd; From November 13, 2019 to October 2023, served as Assistant General Manager and Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asset Management Center at Sino US Liantai Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Ltd.
As is well known, insurance funds are an important source of medium - to long-term capital in the capital market, and the work experience of Zhou Wengui, a foreign insurance giant, will undoubtedly be an important blessing for Morgan Stanley Fund. Therefore, he is also seen by the market as Wang Hongbin's main "deputy" and has high expectations in investment management.
Accelerate the layout of wholly foreign-owned public offerings
Since June 2021, BlackRock Fund has become the first foreign-owned fund management company to be approved for operation. In just over two years, Teda Manulife, Lubbomai, Fidelity, Schroder Fund, Morgan Asset Management, Morgan Stanley, Allianz Fund, and Lianbo Fund have successively been approved, and the number of foreign-owned fund management companies has increased to nine.
The past year of 2023 has also been a year when foreign public offerings have been vigorously promoted, increasing their business expansion efforts.
In terms of newly established foreign public offerings, Lubomi Fund issued Lubomi China Selected Interest Rate Bonds in 2023, with a fund subscription scale of 4.855 billion yuan, becoming the first newly established foreign public offering to exceed 10 billion yuan in management scale. BlackRock Fund has a management scale of nearly 7 billion yuan, with stocks and bonds accounting for half. In the second half of the year, Fuda Fund, which opened up new territories, subscribed for over 5 billion yuan in Fuda Yuda pure bonds issued in November. Schroder Fund's eldest son, Schroder Hengxiang Bond, raised 1.283 billion yuan for the first time. In addition, the "Schroder China Power Equity Fund" applied for has also been approved.
In terms of joint venture to foreign investment, Morgan Asset Management has also taken frequent actions, going through a process from executive layout to product development. In June 2022, Wang Qionghui was approved as the new CEO of China, and in September, Liu Fei was appointed as the Deputy General Manager of the company, focusing on channels and marketing.
After the executives were finalized, the product layout quickly saw results. The Hong Kong Stock Dividend ETF, which was completed in November of the same year, had an initial issuance scale of over 1.3 billion yuan, making it the largest thematic ETF raised since the fourth quarter. At the end of December, the Morgan Stanley China Securities Interbank Certificate of Deposit AAA Index 7-day Holding Fund announced that the fund had raised funds in advance on December 14th, with an effective subscription amount of 5.257 billion yuan, exceeding the planned fundraising scale of 5 billion yuan.
It is reported that although it has just been announced, Zhou Wengui has already started working at Morgan Stanley Fund. It remains to be seen whether he can quickly keep up with the pace of domestic public offering development after working with the team.