On April 12, Shanghai gold futures exceeded 570 yuan/gram, hitting a record high, with an increase of nearly 20% during the year. In this round of gold market, a mysterious investor has entered the public eye with its excellent income performance.
Recently, the asset management product named "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2" has attracted attention. According to the reporter's review, this is a collective asset management product issued by a futures company, and the investment strategy is a subjective CTA. Since the beginning of this year, the net value of "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2" has increased by as much as 100.3%. Since its issuance in December 2022, the net value of "Zhongcai Youyi Lian No. 2" has increased by 415%.
As a manager of asset management products, Zhongcai Futures has also recently "crushed" a number of leading futures companies, becoming the largest long position of gold futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, with a long position of more than 90,000 contracts and a contract value of nearly 50 billion yuan. Combined with the soaring gold price, in the past month or so, the seat has achieved a profit of more than 3 billion yuan in gold futures alone.
Further understanding found that all of the above may be related to Bian Ximing, an important figure in Zhongcai Group. Bian Ximing is the chairman of Zhongcai Group, Zhongcai Futures and many other companies, and he once mentioned in the article that "Another Lotus Fund is operated by me personally".
Another industry insider told reporters that Bian Ximing has outstanding investment performance in the stock and futures markets, and this round of gold market began to lay out two years ago.
The net value of "Another Lotus No. 2" skyrocketed
Recently, an asset management product called "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2" has sparked heated discussions in major forums. The reporter found that the net value performance of the asset management product is very bright, and the net value has increased by as much as 100.3% since the beginning of this year, doubling. Since its inception on December 1, 2022, the net value of the product has increased by 414.72% after resumption.
According to the AMAC's product announcement, the product type of "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2" is a collective asset management product of a futures company, the fund manager is Zhongcai Futures Co., Ltd., and the investment type is commodities and financial derivatives. According to a third-party organization, the investment strategy of "Zhongcai Youyi Lian No. 2" is a subjective CTA, and it has achieved an excess return of about 370% compared with the South China Commodity Index since its establishment.
Gold Futures "First Long"
As the manager of "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2", Zhongcai Futures Co., Ltd. is not a leading futures company in the traditional sense. According to the China Securities Regulatory Commission's 2023 classification of futures companies, Zhongcai Futures is rated "BBB", and there are 55 Class A (AA and A) futures companies above it. At present, the registered capital of Zhongcai Futures is 300 million yuan.
And it is this medium-sized futures company that has recently sat on the throne of the "first long" in gold futures.
According to the data of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, as of the close of trading on April 11, Zhongcai Futures was the largest long in AU2406, AU2408, AU2410, AU2412 and AU2502 contracts, holding a total of 58,382 long gold futures (equivalent to about 32.5 billion yuan), "crushing" Guotai Junan Futures (24,041 hands), which ranked second.
This is not the peak of Zhongcai Futures' holdings.
On March 25 this year, Zhongcai Futures' long positions in all contracts in Shanghai and Gold reached a total of 92,776 contracts (equivalent to about 47.7 billion yuan), far exceeding the second-ranked Haitong Futures (18,042 contracts). In addition, unlike leading futures companies such as CITIC and Guojun, Zhongcai Futures rarely appears in the gold short rankings, indicating that the position of the position may be concentrated in a small number of customers.
The long positions of the customers behind Zhongcai Futures have gained a lot in the recent unilateral gold market. According to the calculation of a third-party institution, from March 1 to April 11 alone, the gold position of Zhongcai Futures has made a profit of more than 3 billion yuan in more than one month, and as the rising market continues, the profit scale of the seat is still expanding.
According to the reporter's statistics, as of April 11, in addition to gold varieties, Zhongcai Futures also held 54,201 silver futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, second only to CITIC and Guojun, ranking third. Zhongcai Futures is also the largest long in DCE's PVC (polyvinyl chloride) futures, holding 113556 lots of PVC futures, which is nearly double that of the second place Guotai Junan Futures (65,239 lots).
"Mysterious speculators" looming
What is the relationship behind the sharp rise in the net value of the asset management products of "Zhongcai Youyi Lotus No. 2" and the huge amount of gold held by Zhongcai Futures? After the reporter communicated with the industry, all this may point to Bian Ximing, an important figure of Zhongcai Group.
First of all, futures companies do not have proprietary business, so tens of thousands of gold long positions are not proprietary positions of futures companies. "However, futures companies can raise funds from shareholders and manage assets for shareholders through the issuance of asset management plans, which is in line with compliance requirements. Industry insiders said.
According to the enterprise investigation, the only shareholder of Zhongcai Futures is Shanghai Zhongcai Industrial Development Co., Ltd. (100% shareholding), the latter's major shareholder is Zhongcai Merchants Investment Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongcai Group", holding 90.91% of the shares), and the second shareholder is Bian Ximing (holding 9.09% of the shares).
Looking further, Zhongcai Group is a large private enterprise, and its legal representative, Bian Ximing, holds 65.32% of the shares of Zhongcai Group, and is also the chairman of many member companies such as Zhongcai Group and Zhongcai Futures. According to the enterprise investigation, there are as many as 335 member companies of Zhongcai Group, and Zhongcai Futures is one of the indirect holding companies, with Bian Ximing's actual beneficial shares accounting for 68.47%.
Bian Ximing himself rarely appears in public, and his dynamics are mainly reflected in the internal documents of the Zhongcai Group. It is worth noting that in the "Perception and Reflection" column of the official website of Zhongcai Group, Chairman Bian Ximing talked about the "Zhongcai Youyilian" asset management product three times in his personal article.
In the June 2022 article, Bian Ximing mentioned that "Another Lotus Fund is operated by me personally", and made it clear that "it is the right time to lock the fund's full position in the highly leveraged Shanghai Gold".
In the June 2023 article, Bian Ximing mentioned that the net asset value of "Youyi Lotus Fund No. 2" is more than 2.50 yuan, and in order to return the majority of investors, it is planned to carry out annual dividends of the fund.
In addition to the above two articles mentioning the "Another Lotus" asset management products, a large number of Bian Ximing's insights on enterprise development, transaction and investment are also published on the website of Zhongcai Group. "Bian Ximing is from an industrial background, originally engaged in the pipe business, and later expanded his territory to the financial field, and has achieved outstanding results in stock and futures investment. He did not participate in this round of gold market by surprise, in fact, he started to lay out two years ago. A person in the futures industry told reporters.
Source: Shanghai Securities News Author Fei Tianyuan, original title "Over 90,000 hands, long gold!"