China Sovereign Fund’s Head of Hedge Funds Has Quit

(Bloomberg) -- The head of hedge-fund investments at China Investment Corp. has resigned to seek other opportunities, according to people familiar with the matter, adding to a slew of senior departures at the $941 billion sovereign wealth fund.

Roslyn Zhang, a managing director in CIC’s fixed income and absolute return department, submitted her resignation in recent weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

Beijing-based CIC didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Zhang’s departure extends a string of senior executive resignations in recent years including the fund’s heads of private equity and asset allocation. Most exits came during the two-year stretch when CIC was without a top leader. The government appointed Peng Chun as chairman in April, filling that void.

In a 2018 interview, Fan Hua, then head of asset allocation, said hedge funds had delivered CIC “very high” risk-adjusted returns over the years, and accounted for about 8% of its overseas portfolio, making it one of the world’s largest investors in the industry.

CIC has been boosting its direct and alternative investments, including hedge funds, to reduce exposure to more volatile public markets. It raised their share by 4.8 percentage points in 2018 to 44.1% of the fund’s overseas portfolio, according to that year’s annual report.

Speaking at the release of the 2018 report in September, Peng said the investing environment had become “more difficult” in 2019 and that CIC was seeking to lower risk and leverage in its investments.

Zhang joined CIC in early 2009 after working at endowment funds and a U.S.-based fund-of-hedge funds, according to a biographical note from a conference she spoke at in December.

Other CIC departures have included Zhang Qing, executive vice president of the fund’s direct investment arm and Wang Ou, who led the private equity department. Winston Ma Wenyan, the former head of CIC’s North America office, left in early 2018. Larry Zhang, head of public equities, quit at the end of 2017 following the exit of David Zhang, who was a managing director at subsidiary CIC Capital.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zhang Dingmin in Beijing at dzhang14@bloomberg.net;Bei Hu in Hong Kong at bhu5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net, Marcus Wright

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg