Fidelity International plans to exit wholly owned China fund unit after just three years

Fidelity International is looking to pull the plug on its wholly owned Chinese mutual fund business, a venture it launched just three years ago with significant fanfare and even more significant capital. The London-based asset management giant has poured roughly $218 million into the operation, more than any of its foreign peers, and has precious little to show for it. The China unit currently manages 14 retail funds totaling 4.5 billion yuan, or about $670 million. That figure is down 25% from a peak of 6 billion yuan, heading in exactly the wrong direction for a business that needed to reach at least $14 billion by 2029 just to break even. A revolving door at the top The numbers alone tell a grim story, but the organizational chaos behind them is arguably worse. Since the unit’s inception in 2023, it has cycled through four board chairmen and three CEOs. FIL has already started trimming the operation. The firm cut 16% of its fund management roles and eliminated approximately 500 positions at its Dalian operations in 2024. For its part, Fidelity International maintains that “China remains an important market.” No formal withdrawal application has been submitted to the China Securi...