Earnings of China’s investment banking major CICC up 75pc

China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of the nation’s oldest investment banks, reported a nearly 75 per cent growth in net profit in the first year of its public listing in Hong Kong.

Earnings surged 74.6 per cent last year to 1.95 billion yuan (HK$2.33 billion) while total revenue increased 54.4 per cent to 9.51 billion yuan.

Harrison Hu, an analyst at Shenwan Hongyin Securities, said: “CICC’s growth is not the highest among peers, given several mainland-based companies recorded more than 100 per cent growth in net profit. But CICC’s differentiated business model and its overseas business is more eye-catching.”

CICC chief operating officer Chu Gang said the company has transformed itself from an investment bank relying “mainly on the initial public offering (IPO) business of state-owned companies” to a more balanced firm with a revenue mix comprising businesses involving investment banking, equity sales, fixed-income, wealth and investment management.

CICC last year ranked first in merger and acquisition business of mainland-China-based enterprises, second in IPO sponsoring business for mainland companies after UBS, and fifth in domestic bond underwritings.

A bull run in China’s stock markets in the first half of last year fuelled earnings of China’s brokerage companies. Some of them such as GF Securities and China Merchants Securities notched up profit growths of more than 100 per cent for last year.