Old brands of private equity firms regain their 'feeling' in 2024, veterans take the lead again, and the 'middle-aged generation' shows a trend of differentiation.
2024-12-31 11:32
Zhitongcaijing
Year-end inventory counting 1
As 2024 draws to a close, the year-end performance of private equity institutions is gradually surfacing.
Contrary to expectations at the beginning of the year, the quant strategies that have been popular for the past two years are now in a consolidation phase, with only a few top institutions showing good performance against the tide.
Another unexpected development is that a group of veteran private equity institutions established before 2010 have been regaining their strength, with Dongfang Gangwan and Danshui Quan both achieving good performance.
Perhaps at this critical moment of accelerating changes in this century, experienced investment veterans who have gone through multiple cycles find it easier to combine their own experiences and endowments to find ways to maximize profits and minimize risks.
At present, those who can achieve "do not listen to the rustling leaves, why not sing and slowly move on" are probably mostly experienced and discerning individuals.
Bin leads again
Among the group of private equity fund managers with billions of assets under management, Bin continued to lead the pack in 2024.
According to statistics from third-party platforms, products under Bin's leadership once again stood in front of the billion-dollar group in the net asset value table as of December 2024.
As a fund manager who established a private equity fund in March 2004, Bin has gone through more than 20 years of cycles in the mainland stock market. He has experienced both extreme optimism and the sudden shock of the 2008 market crash, as well as the subsequent team split.
In the past two years, Bin has focused his main positions on US stocks, especially on AI technology stocks, which have contributed to the strong performance of these overseas stocks.
Despite being in the late stages of his career as a senior fund manager, Bin continues to maintain a "youthful mindset" and dares to concentrate most of his assets on one or two points, demonstrating courage and optimism beyond his peers.
From this perspective, Bin's renewed leadership in 2024 is a result of his personal choices and the internal rules of his distinctive style.
However, this style is also a double-edged sword, and it will be interesting to see how Bin adjusts and how his performance evolves in the coming year.
Danshui Quan "returns to vitality"
Danshui Quan Investment, established in 2007, is another veteran institution that has regained strength this year.
Sales channel data shows that the annual returns of Danshui Quan-related products have reached nearly 20 percentage points, sweeping away the adjustment trend of the past two years.
Compared to public equity institutions with similar strategies, whose average returns for equity products are currently around 5% to 6%, Danshui Quan's performance in 2024 clearly surpasses its peers.
Danshui Quan is one of the representative institutions of mainland subjective equity style private equity institutions and also manages accounts for several overseas sovereign funds. The overall team strength is not to be underestimated.
However, due to its strategies leaning towards contrarian and reversal characteristics, Danshui Quan experienced some net asset pressure in the two to three years before 2024.
It is now evident that Danshui Quan's performance in 2024 is showing signs of recovery. There are reports within the industry that in the past two years, Danshui Quan has made significant efforts to upgrade and iterate its research organization, which should help its investment research capabilities. On the other hand, their commitment to a specific strategy style, after a few years of adjustment, may also be welcoming a return to the market's style.
"Middle-aged" group fighting bravely
Private equity firms established after 2010, known as the "middle-aged" group, are more clearly undergoing differentiation.
Relatively speaking, Zhuang Tao from Panjing Investment and Sun Jiandong from Hongdao Investment have shown more outstanding performances.
Zhuang Tao also has deep experience in the A-share market and has been a star fund manager in the consumer sector for years. However, in the past three years, with the continuous downturn in the consumer sector, his other growth assets have also been under pressure, and his fund operation has always been under pressure.
However, in 2024, his products accumulated a return of 12%, narrowing the floating losses to less than 30 percentage points over the past three years.
Hongdao Investment, a private equity firm established in 2010, achieved a return of over 25 percentage points in 2024, helping to reduce their cumulative losses to less than 50 points over the past three years.
Before founding Hongdao, Sun Jiandong worked in several prominent financial institutions and managed assets worth nearly 30 billion yuan for Huaxia Fund in the 2000s, becoming one of the representative star fund managers of "Old Huaxia."
It is worth noting that Hongdao Investment's performance in the past three years has been at the bottom of the industry. Their ability to capture gains this year also reflects a certain degree of resurgence. It remains to be seen whether they can sustain this performance.
Still struggling
According to channel-related data, some "middle-aged" private equity firms have faced performance pressures over the past three years, but in 2024, they have barely achieved "absolute returns."
Shifeng Asset Management is one example. This institution was once a champion in the last round of index-type bull market, leading the private equity circle by heavily investing in consumer stocks and attracting a large number of investors to "build up positions."
However, after the "group-buying stock" trend ended in the first quarter of 2021, Shifeng Asset Management's performance experienced significant fluctuations, with some products even posting losses of over 40 percentage points in the past three years.
The latest data shows that the annual returns of this former champion's products are between 3.6% and 6.0%, emerging from the shadow of poor performance over the past three years, but their returns are still around the absolute return line, indicating that they still have some way to go to break free from the struggle zone.
Yuanle Sheng Asset Management's Zeng Xiaojie also achieved "absolute returns" in 2024, with the latest data showing returns of around 7% for the year, reducing the accumulated losses over the past three years to nearly 40 percentage points.
It is reported that Zeng Xiaojie places a great emphasis on growth stocks, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, but betting on individual stocks that can rise and contribute to the overall portfolio requires a more technical "portfolio arrangement."
A few years ago, Qu Shi Asset Management's Zhang Xiuqi, who was once very popular, also faced a critical situation with product returns under pressure by -38% in the past three years. This institution represents the status of many "explosive" private equity firms from the previous bull market, once glorious but later experiencing a downturn in performance.
However, Qu Shi Asset Management managed to achieve a return of 9 percentage points this year, which is relatively decent among the middle-aged group.
This article is reproduced from "Wall Street View", edited by Chen Xiaoyi, GMTEight.