CITIC Securities looks set to become the first Chinese firm to top annual equity capital markets (ECM) rankings for Asia-Pacific excluding Japan this year, a nose ahead of Goldman Sachs, according to data from Refinitiv.

Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other Western banks have traditionally battled for the top spot in the region, where ECM activity averages an outsized 34 percent of the investment banking fee pool, compared with 25 percent globally.

CITIC Securities, China’s biggest brokerage, has so far this year won US$15.7 billion credit for deals it and Hong Kong-based unit CLSA have worked on, according to Refinitiv.

Goldman has US$15.4 billion credit, while China International Capital Corp. was third with US$14.7 billion and Morgan Stanley fourth with US$14.3 billion. In 2018, Goldman was first while CITIC Securities was seventh.

CITIC Securities and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The league tables split credit for each deal between all banks involved regardless of the seniority of their roles. A top rank requires work on many deals.

CITIC’s leading role underscores the growing importance of deals involving Chinese mainland companies, an area that domestic players dominate.

“China has always been a big part of the whole Asia-Pacific deal issuance,” said a Hong Kong-based senior ECM banker at a global bank. “Next year is going to be similar to this year.”

CITIC’s biggest deals this year include leading Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s US$7.1 billion convertible bond sale and a US$5.9 billion convertible bond deal, alongside Goldman’s China unit and UBS, for sister firm China CITIC Bank.

Overall, across Asia Pacific including Japan, ECM volumes fell 11 percent to US$251.2 billion in 2019. But convertible bond sales rose 44 percent to US$52.9 billion. Follow-on share sales were worth US$130.2 billion, down just 4 percent.

“2018 was much more skewed toward IPOs. This year, the IPOs, follow-ons and equity-linked deals are quite balanced,” said the ECM banker. “From a product perspective, next year is going to be quite balanced too.” (SD-Agencies)