Exclusive report by Reuters on August 20th cited two insiders familiar with the matter, revealing that Fidelity International, a British fund management group, is planning to withdraw from its wholly-owned fund business in China. The main reason is that the business scale falls far below the minimum profitability requirement.
According to the insiders, Fidelity International believes that to achieve profitability, the managed fund scale needs to reach a threshold of around $14 billion, but the actual scale of its public offering business in China is only about $670 million (approximately 4.5 billion yuan), which is below the 5% profitability requirement. The platform’s assets reached a peak of about 6 billion yuan in the first year of establishment, gradually declining thereafter, with a reduction of about 25% from the peak by the end of June 2026. It has a total of 14 retail fund products.
Other factors include intense local competition and frequent high-level personnel changes. With multiple factors at play, Fidelity International’s global management has ultimately decided that the retail fund business in China is difficult to sustain.
Fidelity International, headquartered in London, manages client assets totaling about $1.18 trillion globally. The company has been operating in Asia for many years, with businesses in Japan, India, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and mainland China, covering investment management, fund products, pension funds, and investment research.
In May 2021, Fidelity International established Fidelity Fund Management (China) Co., Ltd., which was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in August of the same year; it obtained the “Securities and Futures Business Operating License” in December 2022; officially launched its public offering business in China in February 2023 and introduced its first equity public offering fund in April of that year.
Similarly, Schroders, another British fund management company, exited its wholly-owned public fund management platform established in China in 2023 in July 2026, becoming the first foreign asset management institution to exit the fully-owned public fund business in China. Three public offering funds were taken over by the U.S. asset management company Neuberger Berman’s wholly-owned public offering platform in China, while a smaller bond fund plans to be liquidated. By the first quarter of 2026, Schroders’ wholly-owned public offering platform managed fund assets of approximately 1.7 billion yuan (about $250 million).
It is currently unclear how Fidelity International will handle its wholly-owned public fund business in China. Reuters pointed out that the exit plan still requires final review and regulatory approval.
Since Beijing lifted foreign ownership restrictions on public offering fund management companies in 2020, six global asset management companies, including Fidelity, Schroders, and BlackRock, have successively set up wholly-owned public fund management platforms in China. Foreign institutions generally face challenges such as fierce local competition and squeezed profit margins.
Public data from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) shows that as of the end of May 2026, there were a total of 165 public offering fund management institutions in China, with a total of 14,173 public offering funds.
In dealing with intense market competition, Fidelity International also faces regulatory pressure. In recent years, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has continued to promote fee reduction reforms in public offering funds, emphasizing “reducing comprehensive fees, standardizing performance benchmarks, and optimizing performance assessments.” The public offering fund industry is shifting from “size-oriented” to “return-focused.”