(Yicai Global) March 7 -- BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, and Fidelity, the only three foreign-owned public mutual funds in the Chinese mainland, have entrusted their latest public fund products in China to new managers.

Foreign funds still face many challenges in the Chinese market, as the performance of fund managers with only foreign backgrounds has never been outstanding in China, and they have troubles attracting leading local fund managers, Yicai Global learned.

BlackRock banked nearly CNY6 billion (USD870 million) from the sale of its first product, but the proceeds from the ones it launched afterward were quite mediocre, with the latest one raising only about CNY803 million (USD115 million), multiple sources told Yicai Global.

To increase the size and improve the performance of its products, BlackRock is preparing to launch a new fund managed by its fourth equity fund manager. Unlike the previous products, this one will be entirely from the Chinese market.

Shen Yufei, the fund manager hired by BlackRock for the new product, worked for Galaxy Fund for a long time, Yicai Global learned. Shen has complete experience, from researcher to fund manager. The funds he managed have all achieved remarkable results.

Neuberger Berman was very cautious before issuing its first public fund in China, so it waited Feb. 27 to launch an extremely stable and conservative debt-based product.

The core strategy of Neuberger Berman's new fund management is to control risks and make the fund's income steadily exceed the product's income, Zhou Ping, one of the two managers of the fund, recently told Yicai Global. But historical data show that it is not so easy to achieve.

Based on feedback from multiple sources, Neuberger Berman's new fund product has raised nearly CNY1.5 billion in the first week, better than the company had expected.

Fidelity, the latest of the three foreign fund managers to be approved in China, announced on March 3 that its first public fund product would be publicly offered to investors from April 3. It will be managed by Zhou Wenqun, who has over 10 years of experience in the stock investment and research fields.

Zhou Wenqun joined Fidelity's Hong Kong office in 2014 and moved to Shanghai four years later. She worked as an investment manager during the operation of the company's first private equity fund in China.

In terms of investment style, Zhou Wenqun is typically value-oriented. "It is very difficult to make me pay for the premium," she once said.

"After experiencing market volatility in the past two years, we expect China's economy and the Chinese mainland market to stabilize and recover in 2023, especially thanks to the support of loose monetary policy and environment," Zhou Wenqun told Yicai Global.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione