Noah Holdings
Noah Holding’s subsidiary Gopher Asset Management is primarily a fund of funds (FoF) manager with total assets under management of around Rmb170 billion ($24.5 billion). The FoF has delivered an annualized rate of return ranging from 50% to 100% through various strategic stakes in more than 100 funds from around the world and 200 venture companies.
Gopher manages a parent fund of Rmb30 billion and invests the rest via mandates given to a wide range of well-known global asset managers.
“There has been fast growth of the entire business,” says Shang Chuang, Noah’s chief financial officer. A former banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Chuang helped Noah with its IPO in New York in 2010 just three years after its founding.
“We’ve seen difficult and volatile markets, particularly in the past two years because of a regulatory crackdown after many years of regulatory encouragement of financial innovation,” he adds. “The [US-China] trade war also has put huge pressure on the China economy and particularly private enterprises, and it’s hurt the China market. But in 2018, we still saw 20% growth in terms of assets.
“We are able to help clients to maintain growth because of our asset allocation strategies. We offer multi strategies and focus on diversification. We always help clients avoid volatility by not being only in any one asset class.”