A-Share Fund Companies' Self-Purchases of Equity Funds Reach 3.2 Billion Yuan This Year
Taylor Wilson
As of July 14, Chinese fund companies have purchased RMB 3.226 billion of their own equity funds in 2026 — nearly matching the full-year 2025 total of RMB 3.243 billion in barely half a year. The money is flowing into three lanes: index products, seed-capital funds, and long-lockup vehicles.
How big is RMB 3.2 billion in context?
Year-to-date self-purchases hit RMB 3.226 billion, just RMB 17 million short of the 2025 full-year total. At this pace, 2026 is on track for a record.
This means → fund houses are putting their own money into equity products faster than in any prior year.
The latest wave came in July as the ChiNext-STAR composite index kept sliding. Guojin Fund committed at least RMB 15 million in house and senior-management money; six portfolio managers on China Europe Asset Management's value team collectively added over RMB 8 million.
Where is the money going?
Lane one: index products. Guotai Fund made its biggest move in January — three tranches totaling nearly RMB 467 million into the Guotai CSI A500 ETF, almost its entire annual equity self-purchase. Other houses stacked into the CSI HK-Shenzhen Internet index, a BSE-50 enhanced index fund, and a robotics ETF feeder.
In plain terms = when fund companies spend their own cash, the single largest bet usually tracks an index — not a star stock-picker.
Lane two: seed-capital funds (发起式基金 — funds seeded with the manager's own money). 207 launched this year, 22.6% of all new funds. Regulators require at least RMB 10 million of house money per fund, locked for three years. Themes span Hong Kong equities, semiconductors, new materials, and biotech.
Lane three: long-lockup vehicles. Ruiyuan Fund directed all RMB 102 million of its 2026 self-purchases into hybrid funds, with RMB 100 million concentrated in a single three-year holding-period product — over 90% of its self-purchase capital is locked long.
Who is buying — and who is sitting out?
Guotai, Orient Securities AM, and Bank of China IM together account for RMB 1.257 billion, nearly 40% of the industry total. The top ten firms hold over 70%.
This means → self-purchasing is heavily concentrated at the top; more than a quarter of all fund houses have done virtually no equity self-purchasing.
Net-subscription figures need unpacking. E-Fund's year-to-date net total is negative RMB 1.279 billion, yet its equity-fund net subscription is a positive RMB 161 million — the redemptions sit entirely in money-market funds. In plain terms = E-Fund is not retreating; it is shifting low-risk cash toward equities.
Is self-purchasing turning from a gesture into a rule?
On May 7 the CSRC released its "Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Public Funds," formally incorporating equity self-purchases into fund-company evaluation. The scoring premium for mid-to-long-term performance and self-purchase size rose 50%.
This means → self-purchasing is shifting from a voluntary show of confidence during sell-offs to a regulatory metric that affects a company's rating.
This reflects the regulator's push to move the industry from "scale first" to "returns first" — but whether the new framework actually rewires incentives remains to be seen.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.