The Chinese fund management industry remained profitable - albeit with contrasting individual performances - a study shows.

Despite the slowdown in assets under management growth in 2016, China's fund management companies saw steady profitability overall, although net profit growth varied widely by individual firm, according to a report by Cerulli Associates.

Some six fund management firms logged net earnings of more than RMB1 billion ($145 million) in 2016. This was led by ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management at RMB1.6 billion, followed by Tianhong Asset Management's RMB1.5 billion, the report said.

For the 20 largest managers in China, the average net profit margin was 30.8 per cent in 2016 and the average profit yield - which measures how much managers earn in basis points for each dollar they manage (only based on mutual fund AuM)-is approximately 28.3bps. This is similar to 2015 figures of 30.4 per cent and 28.5bps, respectively.

"Among the 20 largest managers, those backed by banks showed outstanding year-on-year prof.it growth of 48 per cent on average, compared to the 2 per cent growth of their non-bank-backed peers," Miao Hui, senior analyst at Cerulli who leads the China research initiative, said.