What is the fund’s business plan? It’s pretty common for the NAV of certain types of funds to fall before it goes up. For example with property development, returns tend to be on a J curve - initial declines as you buy the land and deduct the various costs, then slow recovery as the property is constructed, then hopefully you start to get capital gains as the property is completed and leased or sold. You may not see much profit until pretty near the end in this type of scenario.
So whether or not it’s something to worry about all depends on the fund, what it does, and what the market in general has done over the same timeframe.
I purchased the fund last year, and as far as I remember, it primarily focuses on real estate. However, it is clearly designed specifically for Chinese investors, as nearly all Chinese agents recommend this fund. I suspect the agents receive substantial incentives for promoting it. When I asked the agents for the fund’s historical returns, they mentioned that this information is not publicly available. Is this common practice?
If you’re considering investing in a fund they should be able to give you information on it. If they don’t, invest elsewhere.
As I said above though, for a real estate fund - particularly one that develops - it’s not unusual to have a negative NAV in the early years. What matters is what the NAV is at the point of exit.