China Investment Corp. tapped its chief risk officer, Liu Haoling, as CIO of China's biggest sovereign wealth fund, with more than $1 trillion in domestic and overseas assets.
A statement posted on CIC's website said Liu will take on the role of vice chairman, president and chief investment officer of CIC," replacing Ju Weimin.
A previous statement in January had announced Liu's appointment as deputy secretary of the party committee of CIC, again replacing Ju in that capacity.
The statement lauded Ju's "extraordinary contributions … in terms of corporate strategies, comprehensive risk management, reform of investment management system, institutional investment capacity building, and international communication and cooperation."
Liu's previous title had been executive vice president and chief risk officer of CIC — an area that was a considerable focus of CIC's most recent annual report for 2022, which only came out on Dec. 1, 2023.
The annual report noted that CIC "weathered significant risks and challenges in the overseas investment environment, including a once-in-a-century pandemic, geopolitical tensions and sharp market downturns."
Despite that ugly market backdrop, the latest annual report said CIC had total assets of $1.24 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2022, off just marginally from $1.25 trillion the year before.
Against that backdrop, Liu was elevated to take on CIC's top investment role over other potential candidates, including deputy chief investment officers Guo Xiangjun and Qi Bin.
CIC provided no information regarding a replacement for Liu in his role as chief risk officer.
According to the latest annual report, CIC's overseas portfolio at the end of 2022 had 28.60% of its assets in public equity, 14.94% in fixed income, 53.21% in alternative assets and 3.25% in cash and other products.
At the end of 2021, those corresponding numbers were 35.4% in public equity, 15.4% in fixed income, 47.0% in alternative assets and 2.2% in cash and other products.