GF Securities, one of China’s top brokerages, aims to expand its international business to meet strong demand from Chinese residents and companies for overseas assets, said a senior executive.

    Li Fenghua, general manager of the strategic development department, said the firm would consider opening more overseas branches, such as in New York, Paris, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, and hiring experienced professionals and teams abroad.

    “Our aim is to use our Hong Kong subsidiary as a platform to strengthen international business and significantly increase its share in our total revenue to make domestic and international business under a more balanced structure,” Li said.

    “Global asset allocation demand from Chinese residents and demand from Chinese companies to go abroad is very strong, which will bring huge opportunities to brokerages’ wealth management, corporate financing and merger and acquisition business.”

    Launched in 1991, GF Securities is one of the first full service investment banks and integrated securities firm in China. By the end of 2015, it had total assets worth of 419 billion yuan (US$61.95 billion). It has already established offices in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver.

    Li said he is cautiously optimistic for Chinese brokerages next year due to strong growth momentum in the direct financing market, mergers and acquisitions, asset securitization and investment banking business.

    So long as the economy stabilizes and the government acts to curb risks, Li believed the secondary stock market could avoid major volatility.

    He said the decline of commission rates for the industry had slowed down and would maintain at the current level next year.

    China’s weak stock market in the first half of this year hit domestic securities firms, as they suffered big declines in equity fund trading volumes, margin business and investment returns.

    Their total profits for the first half were down 59 percent at 62.5 billion yuan compared with a year previously, according to the Securities Association of China.

    The drop looks worse than it was as brokerages’ profits were very strong in the first half of 2015.

    And despite the weaker first half this year, 117 of the 126 firms included in the data were profitable, and most of them still recorded their second best performance ever. (SD-Agencies)