During His Tenure, a Nearly 40% Loss: Guangfa Fund Manager Zheng Chengran Steps Down from 1 Fund

Well-known fund manager Zheng Chengran recently stepped down from managing the GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Fund. Previously, he achieved substantial returns by heavily investing in the new energy sector, but due to the sector’s continued decline over the past three years, the fund’s performance significantly retreated and even underperformed the benchmark.

Recently, GF Fund announced a change in fund management. Zheng Chengran will no longer manage the GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Fund starting March 18, with Su Wenjie taking over alone. As a result, Zheng Chengran now manages seven funds with a total scale of 12.86 billion yuan.

It is understood that Zheng Chengran gained fame in 2020 when he first became a fund manager, thanks to doubling the performance of his managed funds. However, as the heavy positions in certain sectors were adjusted, the fund’s performance declined, and his maximum managed scale dropped sharply from 48.235 billion yuan to the hundreds of millions level. To date, the performance of Zheng Chengran’s funds has been mixed—some perform well, while others still face significant pressure to recover.

Funds with over 10 billion yuan managed by fund managers stepping down

According to GF Fund’s announcement, Zheng Chengran stepped down from managing the GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding Fund due to work arrangements. The fund was managed by Zheng from July 26, 2022, to March 18, 2026. Su Wenjie joined on July 2, 2025, and now jointly manages the fund.

According to Wind data, as of March 20, Zheng Chengran’s return on his management of GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding A was -39.11%, with an annualized return of -12.72%, ranking relatively low among similar funds. Additionally, during his tenure, the fund underperformed the benchmark by 56.32%.

GF Fund has not responded to the “International Financial News” reporter’s interview request regarding the reasons for Zheng Chengran’s departure.

It is noted that Zheng Chengran joined GF Fund in 2015, with a long-term focus on research in power equipment and new energy industries. He became well-known in 2020 when managing two funds, GF High-End Manufacturing and GF Xinxiang, both of which doubled their performance that year.

Since then, as a young fund manager, Zheng’s new funds have attracted market attention. Between 2021 and 2022, he managed several new funds, with the peak managed scale reaching 48.235 billion yuan at the end of Q1 2021. However, due to changes in market style, the net value of his managed funds experienced significant declines, and the scale shrank accordingly. Currently, Zheng manages seven funds with a total scale of 12.86 billion yuan as of the end of 2025.

Su Wenjie, who took over management of GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding, has more experience—17 years in securities and nearly 7 years managing funds. His investment style tends to favor upstream resources and related industries.

Past performance pressure

After Zheng Chengran stepped down from GF Growth Power Three-Year Holding, industry attention remains on the performance of his other managed funds.

Wind data shows Zheng currently manages seven funds, mainly concentrated in photovoltaic, lithium batteries, and other new energy sectors. Due to different inception dates and management periods, their returns vary significantly, with some funds still under considerable drawdown pressure.

As of March 20, the returns of GF Xingcheng A, GF Chengxiang A, GF High-End Manufacturing A, and GF Growth New Momentum A were -50.82%, -48.11%, -23.3%, and -19.52%, respectively. The returns of GF Carbon Neutrality Theme A, GF Xinxiang A, and GF New Energy Select A were 92.89%, 56.21%, and 30.93%.

It should be noted that these seven funds are not solely managed by Zheng Chengran. Only GF Xinxiang Hybrid, GF High-End Manufacturing, GF Growth New Momentum Hybrid, and GF Carbon Neutrality Theme are managed solely by him. Performance-wise, the funds with larger drawdowns were mostly established between 2020 and 2021, when the new energy sector was at a high point. These funds have yet to fully recover from their declines.

“New energy has experienced a three-year industry downturn, but is expected to gradually reverse and enter a new cycle of growth,” Zheng Chengran remains optimistic about certain segments within the sector. In multiple quarterly reports through 2025, he mentioned that some industries are expected to start reversing this year.

Frequent personnel changes in the past year

GF Fund was established in 2003, with GF Securities as its major shareholder. By the end of last year, its public fund management scale reached 1.656 trillion yuan, ranking among the top in the industry.

Since February 2025, five fund managers have left GF Fund. Among them, veteran investor Fu Youxing, with over 24 years of experience, resigned from managing two funds on March 13 and no longer serves as a fund manager.

What will happen to Zheng Chengran’s remaining funds after stepping down? How will he manage future opportunities amid past performance pressures? The “International Financial News” will continue to follow this story.