Issuing 31 announcements overnight, CICC's significant merger is finalized. Will the landscape of the securities industry change completely?
Overnight, 31 announcements were issued in quick succession. Finally, there is new progress in CICC's three - in - one merger.
After merging Dongxing Securities and Cinda Securities, CICC has become the fourth - largest super brokerage firm in terms of asset size, second only to Guotai Haitong, Citic Securities, and Huatai Securities. It is also the fourth brokerage firm in the industry with total assets exceeding one trillion yuan.
According to the consolidated financial statements, after the merger, CICC's operating income in 2025 increased from 28.5 billion yuan to 37.2 billion yuan, and its industry ranking rose from the fifth to the third place. At the end of 2025, the parent company's net capital increased from 48.1 billion yuan to 103.3 billion yuan, and its industry ranking rose from the twelfth to the fourth place.
It is worth noting that since 2024, there have been 8 brokerage mergers, and 5 of them have completed the acquisition and transfer procedures. The merger wave continues this year. Most of the mergers of small and medium - sized brokerages are provincial integrations, while the mergers of leading brokerages aim to compete for a place in the top three and become "investment banks and investment institutions with international competitiveness and market leadership."
CICC told Financial Gossip Girl that the current transaction still needs to go through subsequent decision - making and approval procedures, and the progress of this restructuring will be announced in a timely manner. During the transition period, unless otherwise agreed in advance by all parties involved in the absorption merger, the assets, business, personnel, operations, etc. of each party should remain stable and independent of each other, and no major decisions inconsistent with their normal business operations will be made; no activities that may have a significant adverse impact on their business and financial conditions will be carried out.
1. CICC's merger draft is out, and a new trillion - level brokerage is launched
It has been half a year since CICC announced the absorption and merger of Dongxing and Cinda last November.
On the evening of May 18th, CICC issued 31 announcements, including the resolution of the board meeting of CICC, the board's explanation of the purchase and sale of assets within 12 months before this transaction, the shareholder return plan for the next three years (2026 - 2028), the commitment letter of Industrial Securities to CICC, and so on.
The most important one among them is the "Report (Draft) on the Exchange - for - Share Absorption and Merger of Dongxing Securities Co., Ltd. and Cinda Securities Co., Ltd. by China International Capital Corporation Limited."
In this absorption and merger, the A - share exchange price of CICC is 36.68 yuan per share (the average trading price in the previous 20 days was 37 yuan), the A - share exchange price of Dongxing Securities is 16.05 yuan per share, and the A - share exchange price of Cinda Securities is 19.11 yuan per share.
The exchange prices set by these three companies are quite particular:
The average trading price of CICC in the 20 days before pricing was 37 yuan, and 36.68 yuan was calculated after adjusting for dividends.
The average trading price of Dongxing Securities in the 20 days before pricing was 12.81 yuan. A 26% premium was added to make it 16.14 yuan, and finally, after adjusting for dividends, it became 16.05 yuan.
The average trading price of Cinda Securities in the 20 days before pricing was 19.15 yuan, and it became 19.11 yuan after adjusting for dividends.
That is to say, both CICC and Cinda are conducting share exchanges at par, while only Dongxing has a 26% premium for share exchange.
Based on the exchange prices of the three parties, the exchange ratios of Dongxing Securities and Cinda Securities to CICC's A - shares are 1:0.4376 and 1:0.5210 respectively. CICC is expected to issue 3.104 billion A - shares, and the total consideration for this transaction is as high as 113.9 billion yuan.
The draft shows that based on the data at the end of 2025, after the merger, the number of CICC's business outlets will increase from 247 to 441, and its industry ranking will jump from the fourteenth to the third place; the scale of retail customers will exceed 15 million, a significant increase from the previous 9.99 million. The number of investment advisors will increase from 3,866 to 5,756, and the product holding scale will also increase from over 460 billion yuan to over 500 billion yuan.
After successfully absorbing and merging Dongxing Securities and Cinda Securities, CICC, this giant, will increase its revenue from 2.85 billion to 3.72 billion, climbing to a higher level among brokerages and rising from the fifth - largest in terms of scale to the third - largest super brokerage in the industry.
Regarding the reason for this merger, CICC told Financial Gossip Girl:
For a long time, CICC has faced an obvious shortcoming in capital. The parent company's net capital is at the lowest level among comparable companies in the same industry, which restricts the expansion of related businesses due to capital constraints. At the same time, CICC Wealth, a subsidiary, conducts wealth management business. The net capital of the parent and subsidiary companies cannot be flexibly allocated across entities, resulting in the margin trading scale of CICC Wealth being unable to meet the growing customer needs, and the asset allocation across business lines being restricted. This merger will significantly enhance the net capital scale of the merged company, achieve the overall collection of group table resources, optimize core risk control indicators, and broaden the space for asset allocation and business development.
Regarding employee placement, CICC said that there is currently no plan for layoffs or contractions:
As of the closing date, the labor contracts of all employees of CICC (including branches and business departments) will continue to be fulfilled by the surviving company. The labor contracts of all employees of Dongxing Securities (including branches and business departments) and Cinda Securities (including branches and business departments) will be assumed and continued to be fulfilled by the surviving company. All rights and obligations of Dongxing Securities (including branches and business departments) and Cinda Securities (including branches and business departments) as employers of their existing employees will be enjoyed and assumed by the surviving company as of the closing date of this absorption merger.
While releasing the merger draft, CICC also released the "CICC Shareholder Return Plan for the Next Three Years (2026 - 2028)", promising that within any consecutive three - year period, the company will distribute in cash a cumulative profit of not less than 30% of the average annual distributable profit achieved in these three years. In principle, profit distribution will be carried out once a year, and the board of directors can also propose an interim profit distribution.
2. The brokerage merger wave is accelerating comprehensively, and 5 out of 8 mergers have been completed
Since 2024, the wave of brokerage integration has accelerated comprehensively.
According to a rough statistics by Sister Ba, there have been 8 brokerage mergers, and 5 of them have completed the acquisition and transfer procedures, namely Guolian Minsheng, Guotai Haitong, Zheshang Securities, Guoxin Securities, and Western Securities. In addition to CICC, there are two other mergers that have not been completed. They are the merger of Soochow Securities and Donghai Securities announced in March and the acquisition of Shanghai Securities by Orient Securities announced in April. In addition, there is a potential for restructuring between Founder Securities and Ping An Securities, as well as between Huachuang Securities and Pacific Securities, and they are still waiting for further signals.
The merger wave continues this year. Most of the mergers of small and medium - sized brokerages are provincial integrations, while the mergers of leading brokerages aim to compete for a place in the top three and become "investment banks and investment institutions with international competitiveness and market leadership."
According to the current situation, the merging brokerages all come from the "same system". For example, CICC's three - in - one merger belongs to the Huijin system, Orient Securities and Shanghai Securities both belong to the Shanghai system, Soochow and Donghai are both from the Jiangsu system, and Guoxin and Wanhe are both from the Guangdong system:
Therefore, the industry is also speculating that in the future, the potential mergers may include Industrial Securities and Huafu Securities of the Fujian state - owned assets system, Guoyuan Securities and Hua'an Securities of the Anhui state - owned assets system, First Capital and Capital Securities of the Beijing system, Zheshang Securities and Caitong Securities of the Zhejiang system, etc. Two other companies, Orient Securities and Soochow Securities, are also worthy of attention:
First, in March, Soochow Securities announced that it plans to acquire 83.77% of the shares of Donghai Securities through a combination of issuing shares and paying cash.
Soochow Securities is a local brokerage in Suzhou. The predecessor of Donghai Securities can be traced back to Changzhou Securities established in 1993. Both brokerages are "time - honored" brokerages in Jiangsu Province for more than 30 years. Donghai Securities has unique advantages in fixed - income, research and consulting, etc., and also has a complete offline layout with 69 business departments and 17 branches. After the merger, Soochow Securities will become the second - largest leading brokerage in Jiangsu Province, second only to Huatai.
Second, in April, Orient Securities, which is listed on both the Hong Kong and A - share markets, announced that the company is planning to acquire 100% of the equity of Shanghai Securities by issuing A - shares and paying cash.
The announcement shows that the initially determined transaction counterparties are Bailian Group, Guotai Haitong, Shanghai International Group Investment, Shanghai International Group, and Shanghai Urban Construction Investment Group. The transaction counterparties jointly hold 100% of the equity of Shanghai Securities. The parties to the transaction will further negotiate and determine the transaction plan, price, and other matters.
Orient Securities was established in 1998 and has 170 branches across the country. It wholly owns professional subsidiaries such as Orient Asset Management, Orient Futures, Orient Capital, Orient Innovation, and Orient Hong Kong, and participates in Huitianfu Fund as the largest shareholder.
Before the announcement of the merger and restructuring, there was also a personnel change at Orient Securities:
In March, Orient Securities announced that Zhou Lei, the deputy general manager of Shanghai International Group, officially assumed the positions of executive director, chairman, director of the Strategy and Sustainable Development Committee, and member of the Compensation and Nomination Committee of the company. In December 2025, Gong Dexiong, the former chairman of Orient Securities, became the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and the president of Shanghai International Group.
3. Accelerated integration of "two super - strong and multi - strong" reshapes the brokerage industry pattern
The recently released 2025 annual report shows the effects of the mergers in 2024. The financial report data of Guotai Haitong, Guolian Minsheng, and Guoxin Securities in 2025 have changed significantly, while the changes in Zheshang Securities and Western Securities are not yet obvious.
For example, the financial reports of Guotai Haitong and Guolian Minsheng last year were very impressive.
Guotai Haitong achieved a total operating income of 63.107 billion yuan for the whole year, a year - on - year increase of 87.4%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 27.809 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 113.52%. Among them, the operating income of the wealth management business increased by 114.77% year - on - year, and the operating income of the investment banking business increased by 60.21% year - on - year, initially achieving the effect of "1 + 1 > 2". Chairman Gu Wei said that the company will always adhere to the development concept of "deeply cultivating the region and meticulously cultivating the industry" and continue to build an "industrial investment bank, a technology - driven investment bank, and a wealth - oriented investment bank."
Guolian Minsheng achieved an operating income of 7.673 billion yuan in 2025, a year - on - year increase of 185.99%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.009 billion yuan, a year - on - year surge of 405.49%. Chairman Zhu Jian said at the company's latest performance briefing that 2025 was an extraordinary year for Guotai Haitong. In this year, the historic merger was completed, and the integration effect was initially released.
In fact, with this wave of brokerage integration, the industry landscape has been basically reshaped. After the completion of the integrations of Guotai Haitong and CICC, the long - standing competitive pattern of "Three CITICs and One Huatai" (Citic, CICC, CITIC Construction, and Huatai) has officially ended, and a new competitive paradigm of "two leading giants, one in the south and one in the north" with Citic Securities and Guotai Haitong has been established. After the merger, CICC will enter the ranks of trillion - level brokerages, ranking third in the industry with an operating income of 37.2 billion yuan, and together with Citic Securities and Guotai Haitong, form a "big three" pattern.
In terms of concentration, the current industry CR5 (the concentration of the top five) has reached 73.3%, and CR10 has reached 86%. Leading brokerages are accelerating the formation of a concentrated pattern through mergers and acquisitions. In the first quarter of 2026, the profits and revenues of the top ten brokerages accounted for 74.7% and 69.3% of the industry respectively, and have been continuously increasing since the second quarter of 202