Jack Ma's circle of friends has become lively again

"I raise chickens and pigs. Jack Ma and Yu Feng, they are the chickens that lay golden eggs." Fifteen years ago, at the founding party of Yunfeng Fund, former Chinese billionaire and founder of New Hope Group, Liu Yonghao, made this remark about the two founders.

As a former richest man in Asia, Jack Ma's vast industrial empire includes the Yunfeng system, which is treated as a special "reserved land." Jack Ma and Yu Feng embedded their names and jointly invested in their personal capacity, which is the story of the birth of "Yunfeng."

Yunfeng Fund's private equity (PE) business started and has now formed the Yunfeng system, with Hong Kong-listed company Yunfeng Financial (0376.HK) as its main entity asset—Yu Feng, the actual operator, is publicly referred to as "Jack Ma's god teammate."

Recently, the Yunfeng system has become active again. For example, Liang Xinjun, the former second-in-command of Fosun International who has been "retired" for many years, has just joined the board of Yunfeng Financial. Additionally, Lu Minfang, who stepped down as president of Mengniu last year, has quietly become a partner at Yunfeng Fund, and they have also obtained a digital currency trading license.

On September 9, Yunfeng Financial announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its subsidiary Yunfeng Securities had received approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission the previous day, holding a Type 1 Securities License and adding virtual asset trading qualifications, allowing it to provide trading services for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more through its own platform.

The two life winners have joined forces to create the Yunfeng system, which has now been around for 15 years. As the wheels of time roll forward, the domestic and international economic situation has undergone several changes. After the accumulation of experience and twists and turns, these smart people who have always made money in the era are active again.

A Comeback After Three Years

The Yunfeng system does not have a direct equity affiliation with the Alibaba system, but Yunfeng Financial has been somewhat quiet in the capital market in recent years. However, it has recently made a "comeback."

On August 28, Yunfeng Financial released its mid-term results for 2025, reporting a net profit attributable to shareholders of HKD 486 million, a significant increase of 142% compared to the same period last year. This is also the best mid-term performance that Yunfeng Financial has delivered since it acquired the Rui Dong Group from Hong Kong's "shell king" Gao Zhenshun, renamed it Yunfeng Financial, and went public through a reverse merger in 2015, as well as injecting American Winton Insurance Asia Limited into the listed company system in 2017.

On September 2, Yunfeng Financial issued a voluntary announcement stating that since the announcement on July 14 regarding digital currency and other fields, it has used internal cash of USD 44 million to purchase 10,000 Ethereum as strategic reserve assets.

Everything seems to be going according to plan. The announcement on July 14 was published on Yunfeng Financial's official WeChat account on July 15—this was the first update of the Yunfeng Financial WeChat account after a three-year hiatus.

The market's interpretation of Yunfeng Financial's "USD 300 million bet on Ethereum" as "Jack Ma bought Ethereum" seems to be inappropriate. As personal investments of Jack Ma and Yu Feng, the two have held 40% and 60% of the shares in the parent company "Yunfeng Financial Holdings" of the listed company Yunfeng Financial, respectively.

The specific control relationship has undergone multiple layers of nesting: according to the latest 2025 mid-term report data, "Yunfeng Financial Holdings" holds 91% of Key Imagination, which in turn holds 73.21% of Jade Passion, while Jade Passion, with a 47.25% shareholding, becomes the major shareholder of the Hong Kong-listed company Yunfeng Financial It is worth noting that in the latest financial report, Yu Feng's personal shareholding in "Yunfeng Financial Holdings" has significantly changed, rising to 70.15%.

The business relationship between Jack Ma and Yu Feng seems to have become closer after finding the breakthrough point in digital currency.

On September 1st, the day before the official announcement of acquiring virtual currency, Yunfeng Financial announced two major actions: first, a strategic cooperation with Ant Group's Ant Digital Technology, and second, an investment in the Pharos public blockchain founded by former core members of Ant's blockchain business. The core business of the Pharos public blockchain is to provide technical support for smoothly "moving" traditional assets onto the blockchain.

Yunfeng Financial is licensed in Hong Kong and also holds the status of a listed financial company, with Jack Ma as a shareholder—Yunfeng Financial can clearly become one of the most trusted partners for Alibaba and Ant Group in their strategic layout for digital currency.

Alumni Relationships in the Capital Market

The friendship between Jack Ma and Yu Feng can be traced back to at least 2006.

On April 18, 2006, in front of the elevator doors on the 70th floor of the Cheung Kong Center in Central Hong Kong, 78-year-old Li Ka-shing was personally waiting for his guests. The day before, according to Li Ka-shing's arrangement, invitations had been sent to three tables of guests attending this luncheon, and the guests were required to personally sign to confirm receipt.

At 11 o'clock, the elevator doors opened, and the guests entered in succession: Fu Chengyu, General Manager of CNOOC; Li Dongsheng, Chairman of TCL; Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun; Niu Gensheng, Chairman of Mengniu; Feng Lun, Chairman of Vantone; Jiang Nanchun, CEO of Focus Media; Fang Hongbo, President of Midea Refrigeration... They were more than 30 "classmates" from the first CEO class of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

This CEO class does not accept applications and is only by invitation. It arranges only 16 days of courses each year, with teaching locations spread across Hong Kong, Philadelphia, Fontainebleau, and Beijing. Although the tuition is considerable, transportation and accommodation costs must still be borne by the participants. The first lesson of the inaugural class was a visit to Li Ka-shing in Hong Kong—true to its name, the "Cheung Kong" name comes from Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings, and the business school itself was proposed and funded by Li Ka-shing.

Among the students shaking hands with Li Ka-shing, two individuals gradually deepened their connections—one was the then-prominent CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, who was noted by Li Ka-shing himself as having "great fame"; the other was Yu Feng, who had just sold Focus Media to Jiang Nanchun on the eve of its IPO and was seeking a new direction after "cashing out."

In February 2007, Yu Feng resigned from his somewhat symbolic position as Co-Chairman of Focus Media. In November of the same year, Alibaba's B2B business was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with the stock code "1688.HK," and Jack Ma was in the limelight.

In early summer 2009, Jack Ma and his old classmate Yu Feng gathered for a boat trip on West Lake, and their collaboration began to take shape. After all, an independent capital platform outside the Alibaba system would also be quite beneficial for Jack Ma. By April 2010, Yunfeng Fund was officially established, and Yu Feng gained a new title in the capital market—Co-Founder of Yunfeng Fund.

Initially, Yunfeng Fund focused on private equity (PE). PE involves raising funds from specific investors privately to invest in non-listed companies, with the aim of exiting through IPOs or mergers and acquisitions as the companies develop, ultimately achieving capital appreciation Essentially, PE is a money-making game for the wealthy. High-quality invested enterprises are a much scarcer resource than capital.

In the early years of Yunfeng Fund, the circle of entrepreneurs was thriving, with banquets and gatherings where connections became the stage for PE firms like Yunfeng Fund to take root.

In 2010, Yunfeng's first US dollar fund was established; in 2011, Yunfeng's first RMB fund was established. So far, Yunfeng Fund has cumulatively set up five RMB investment funds and four US dollar investment funds, with a long list of invested enterprises: Sogou, CATL, XPeng, Aikang, Meinian Health, WuXi AppTec, NetEase Cloud Music, Damai, YTO Express, October Rice Field, Yuanqi Forest, Weidong, and so on.

Of course, this includes a series of investment opportunities related to Alibaba, including Alibaba's privatization in Hong Kong and subsequent listings in the United States and Hong Kong, as well as Ant Group, Alibaba Health, and Cainiao—these companies also appear on Yunfeng Fund's list of invested enterprises.

It is worth mentioning that Yunfeng Fund was also an early investor in Xiaomi. On December 29, 2014, Lei Jun publicly announced that Xiaomi had completed a round of financing, with a valuation of $45 billion and a total financing amount of $1.1 billion, with Yunfeng Fund being one of the participating institutions.

In fact, at the beginning of Yunfeng Fund's establishment, some entrepreneurs in the circle said: "I believe in Yu Feng," "Yu Feng has started a business himself, received investment from large funds, gone through the complete listing process, and experienced mergers and acquisitions. He is not from a formal background, but those from a formal background may not have this kind of experience."

Reunion of Fudan Alumni in Shanghai

Yu Feng is not only not from a financial background, but his major is also far from economics.

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Yu Feng entered the Philosophy Department of Fudan University in 1982, graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1986, and returned to Fudan to pursue a master's degree in philosophy in 1988, obtaining his master's degree in 1991.

In this regard, Yu Feng not only studied in the first CEO class at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business with Guo Guangchang, the founder of Fosun Group, but is also a "senior brother" of Guo Guangchang in the Philosophy Department of Fudan University. Guo Guangchang is three years junior to Yu Feng, having entered the Philosophy Department of Fudan University in 1985 and remaining at the school as a Youth League Committee teacher after graduating in 1989.

In Shanghai, China's financial center, many alumni from the Philosophy Department of Fudan University have ventured into business, becoming a group with a striking contrast. During the 120th anniversary celebration of Fudan University this May, an anonymous Fudan alumnus donated 100 million yuan specifically to support the development of the philosophy discipline.

Also during the May anniversary celebration, Fudan University established the "Fudan Yuan" Cultural Development Fund. The first phase of 100 million yuan had half of it donated by Yunfeng Fund: "Yu Feng, the founder of Yunfeng Fund, donated 50 million yuan, while Li Ruigang, president of the Shanghai Fudan University Alumni Association, and Chen Jingfeng, a board member and chairman of Zhongyun Capital, each donated 10 million yuan in their personal capacity."

The elite consciousness that comes with a prestigious school background and active participation in the culture of the entrepreneurial circle may be two important labels on Yu Feng.

Recently, with Yunfeng Fund's "comeback" and recruitment efforts, many Fudan alumni have joined the ranks On September 5th, YUNFENG FIN announced the appointment of Liang Xinjun as the company's independent non-executive director. Born in 1968, Liang Xinjun is not only a Fudan University alumnus—having graduated in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in genetic engineering from the Department of Biology—but he was also a close partner of Jack Ma and Yu Feng during the first CEO class at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, and is one of the "Fosun Five Swordsmen."

Liang Xinjun previously served as the CEO of Fosun International and was the "number two" at Fosun. When he resigned from Fosun in March 2017 due to "health reasons," Guo Guangchang reflected, "I did not consider whether everyone was exhausted."

Liang Xinjun later established his own family office. In the 2025 Forbes Global Billionaires List, Liang Xinjun ranked 23rd on the Singapore Rich List with a net worth of $2.6 billion.

Liang Xinjun's return to YUNFENG FIN is a clear indication of "standing on stage." However, another Fudan alumnus, Lu Minfang, whom Yu Feng recently recruited, may be there to get things done.

On August 25th, at the site where YUNFENG Fund officially announced its strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai Bank, a new face appeared beside Yu Feng: Lu Minfang, a partner at YUNFENG Fund.

Born in 1969, Lu Minfang has a deep connection with Jack Ma and Yu Feng through their classmate Niu Gensheng in the first CEO class at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. In September 2016, under the immense pressure of Mengniu's 751 million yuan loss, Lu Minfang stepped in as president; he resigned in October 2024, just as Mengniu approached its goal of nearly 100 billion yuan in revenue.

Lu Minfang, the longest-serving president of Mengniu and a prominent figure in China's fast-moving consumer goods industry, has now become Yu Feng's right-hand man.

Author: Wen Shijun, Source: Prism, Original Title: "Jack Ma's Circle of Friends is Buzzing Again | Prism"

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