Public Offering Operating Data Exposed: China Merchants, Huatai-PineBridge, and Bank of Communications Schroders’ Net Profit Slump Is the Most Striking

(Source: Fortune List)

With listed companies’ annual reports being released in succession, the 2025 public fund performance “scorecards” have also come out one after another. Fortune List has noticed that 43 companies are seeing results that are “hot and cold”: E Fund sits firmly in the top spot with net profit of 3.806 billion yuan; ICBC Credit Suisse and GF Fund show strong growth in net profit. But on the other hand, many leading and mid-tier public funds have seen year-over-year declines in net profit. Among them, Bank of Communications Schroder Fund’s net profit has fallen for four consecutive years. China Merchants Fund, Huitianfu Fund, Huatai-PineBridge, Pudong Ansheng, and Guohai Franklin Fund’s net profit has also declined against the trend, making the industry’s “Matthew effect” increasingly prominent.

Top-tier camp: the strong get stronger, but hidden worries remain

Among the 11 public funds with net profit exceeding 1 billion yuan, 4 set historical highs, but 3 saw year-over-year declines—showing that even the top players are not all on easy terrain.

Although industry leader E Fund leads the pack with net profit of 3.806 billion yuan, its year-over-year figure fell slightly by 2.42%. It is the only company among the top tier whose net profit declined. China Merchants Fund and Huitianfu Fund also were not spared: their net profits fell by 12.84% and 8.14%, respectively, dropping out of the top-tier group.

In contrast, ICBC Credit Suisse overtook Southern and Huaxia with net profit of 3.007 billion yuan. GF Fund’s net profit was 2.753 billion yuan, up sharply by 37.70% year over year. Southern, Huaxia, and Fortis all recorded net profits above 2.2 billion yuan, with growth rates exceeding 10%. The differentiation in growth momentum among top-tier players is clear.

Mid-tier camp: growth and decline split evenly, and four consecutive years of decline is the most striking

Among the 18 mid-tier companies with net profit of 100 million to 1 billion yuan, 9 saw double-digit growth while 9 faced pressure. The downward pressure is concentrated among long-established public funds.

Bank of Communications Schroder Fund is the most severe case. Since 2022, it has seen net profit decline for four consecutive years, and in 2025 the drop reached 12.97%, making its downward trend the most prominent among the mid-tier group. Huatai-PineBridge, Pudong Ansheng, and Guohai Franklin—these three companies as well—have simultaneously experienced declines in both revenue and net profit, facing dual pressure on both scale and performance.

Meanwhile, companies such as Industrial Securities, Dacheng Fund, and Bank of China Fund grew against the trend. Zhongtai Securities Asset Management even jumped from the “tens of millions” level to the “hundreds of millions” level. Its net profit surged year over year by 201.79%, becoming a benchmark for growth among mid-tier players.

Bottom-tier camp: losses expand, decline exceeds 70%, and survival pressure surges

Among the 14 companies with net profit below 100 million yuan, 6 saw double growth and 2 achieved a crossover from “million-yuan” to “hundreds of millions” levels. However, the declines and the loss-making companies are more worth watching.

Dongxing Fund’s net profit plunged by 77.48% year over year; Fangzheng Fubon Fund’s decline was 30.46%; and Guolian An and Shenwan Lingxin also declined in step. After Nanhua Fund turned from profit to loss in 2024, its losses expanded to 17.3008 million yuan in 2025. After Pioneer Fund was held by Zhinan Zhen, the disclosed data show a full-year loss of 27.0481 million yuan, further worsening the survival predicament of bottom-tier companies.

Fortune List believes the “the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker” pattern in the public fund industry in 2025 will become fixed. Companies with declining net profits are concentrated among established top-tier firms, traditional mid-tier players, and small-sized public funds at the tail end. They either suffer from weak scale growth, delayed business transformation, or high costs coupled with declining returns. At the same time, ICBC Credit Suisse and GF Fund have achieved a leapfrogging performance by leveraging equity and passive product efforts, as well as breakthroughs in pension business—also pointing the industry toward a direction of growth.

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Responsible editor: Song Yafang