HONG KONG, Mar 31, 2025 - (ACN Newswire) - 28 March 2025, GF Securities Co., Ltd. ("GF Securities" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries within the scope of its consolidated financial statements (“subsidiaries”), the “Group”) announced its annual results for 2024. Last year was a crucial year for China in pursuing economic transformation and comprehensively deepening the reform of the capital market. Faced a challenging macroeconomic situation and an evolving industry landscape, GF Securities made a unified response and worked hard to press ahead by maintaining the positioning of a securities company as a functional entity in effectively playing its role of serving the real economy. The Company achieved steady progress in all areas of its work with main operating indicators in the forefront of the industry, realizing a total revenue and other income of RMB37,346 million and a net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company of RMB9,637 million.
As one of the first batch of pilot comprehensive management brokerages selected by the CSRC, GF Securities possesses licenses for a full range of services involved in four business segments, including investment banking, wealth management, trading and institution, and investment management. The Group has successively set up futures subsidiaries, public fund subsidiaries, private fund subsidiaries, alternative investment subsidiaries and asset management subsidiaries. With its unique value concept and pragmatic entrepreneurial style, the Company has built up a full-service chain with comprehensive layout and strong strength. In respect of regional development, the Company based in Guangdong and serves the whole country, connecting domestically and internationally, forges a leading national brokerage with a long-term vision and an open mind. Against this backdrop, the Company has maintained main operating indicators ranking among the top securities companies in China for many consecutive years, and established its leading advantages in various key business segments.
Mr. Lin Chuanhui, the Chairman of GF Securities, said: “Over the last year, the Company actively committed to its original aspirations of serving the real economy by tracing its roots in the industry for development. We actively integrated into the overall national development, made new progress in the in-depth development of “Five Major Areas”. In 2025, the “1+N” policy for the capital market will continue to take effect and deliver solid outcomes, further enhancing the value of investment. Accordingly, the Company will adhere to the main responsibilities and principal businesses and prioritize the role of performing its functions, while embracing technological revolution to actively pursue innovative changes, so as to make its contribution to the high-quality development of the capital market.”
With Focusing on Main Responsibilities and Principal Businesses, the Four Major Business Segments Have Achieved Steady Growth
GF Securities has a complete business system with a balanced business structure, and has formed a leading advantage in many core business areas such as wealth management, asset management, and research. During the Reporting Period, the Company's four major business segments all achieved steady growth.
The transformation of wealth management business segment has achieved remarkable results. As of the end of December 2024, the total balance of financial products sold by the Company on a commission basis exceeded RMB260 billion, representing an increase of approximately 22% as compared to the end of last year. The turnover of the Company’s SSE and SZSE stock and funds amounted to RMB23.95 trillion (bilateral statistics), representing a year-on-year increase of 28.98%. The balance of margin financing and securities lending of the Company was RMB103.686 billion, representing an increase of 16.52% as compared to the end of last year, with a market share of 5.56%. Clients’ asset allocation needs continue to be released. The Company has an investment advisory team of more than 4,600 employees, still ranking first in the industry (based on data of parent company). The net sales income and balance of financial products and commissions for multi-market transactions all achieved a year-on-year growth.
The investment banking business segment achieved counter-cyclical growth. During the Reporting Period, the Company's equity and bond underwriting scale ranked among the top ten in the industry. In respect of domestic equity financing, the Company completed A-share equity financing projects with a lead underwritten amount of RMB8.666 billion, achieving market share increased against the downward trend. At the same time, the Company completed 14 Hong Kong IPO projects, and 1 US IPO project. According to the statistics of Dealogic, the Company’s equity financing business in Hong Kong ranked fourth among Chinese-based securities companies in terms of the total issuance size of IPOs and refinancing projects equally distributed among all underwriters. In respect of debt financing business, the Company acted as the lead underwriter for 665 tranches of bonds, representing a year-on-year increase of 59.86%, with a lead underwritten amount of RMB296.322 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.22%. In respect of Chinese offshore bond business, 60 bonds were issued with an underwritten amount of US$11.022 billion, while the Company completed five projects in major asset restructuring and financial advisory business that had industry and regional influence, involving a total transaction amount of approximately RMB13.357 billion.
The investment management segment further solidified its strengths. The Group carries out public fund management business through its non-wholly owned subsidiary, GF Fund, and investee company, E Fund to manage the public funds with the net assets amounted to over RMB3.5 trillion. GF Fund and E Fund ranked third and first in the industry in terms of the size of public funds under the management excluding monetary funds, respectively (Source: Wind, Statistics of the Company). The Group also engages in private fund management business through its wholly-owned subsidiary, GF Xinde focusing on industries such as biomedicine, intelligent manufacturing, new energy and corporate services. The average monthly paid-in amount of funds under management by GF Xinde was over RMB17.5 billion in the third quarter of 2024 (Source: Asset Management Association of China). In the overseas market, GF Investments (Hong Kong), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Group, has managed investment projects focused mainly in the fields of high-end manufacturing, TMT, big consumption, biomedical, etc. Several investment projects have exited by way of mergers and acquisitions or been listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong, the United States and other regions.
The trading and institutional business segment maintained strong momentum. As a primary dealer of OTC derivatives business, the Company’s trading business ranks firmly in the first echelon, providing market-making services for more than 800 funds and all ETF options of the SSE and SZSE, and market-making services for CSI 300 stock index options and CSI 1000 stock index options of the China Financial Futures Exchange, and market-making services for 43 NEEQ companies. During the Reporting Period, the Company issued 84,691 private equity products through the China Securities Inter-agency Quotation System and OTC market, with a total amount of RMB900.744 billion. Meanwhile, the scale of FICC business continued to grow with multiple strategies and the Company ranked fifth in the industry in terms of the scale of custody of public funds.
With Customer-centric Focus to Optimize Integrated Financial Service Capabilities
GF Securities insists on being investor-oriented, and continues to improve the quality and efficiency of services to different customer groups such as individual investors, institutional investors, and corporate customers by honing its comprehensive financial service capabilities with the full life cycle across the entire business chain, and rewards investors with outstanding results.
In respect of individual investors, the Company insists on a "customer-centric" business philosophy and unswervingly accelerates its transformation into a buy-side investment adviser to stay highly aligned with the interests of investors. During the Reporting Period, the Company closely followed its main tone for high-quality development and its digitalization and platform-based strategies, focused on the key development direction for “high-quality customer base and efficient online operation” of the wealth brokerage business, carried out customer development services and standardized operations both online and offline; achieved steady progress in the implementation of transformation and reform of the wealth management and brokerage business; continued to enhance the comprehensive capacity of serving residents’ wealth management. In terms of the balance maintained by the agency sales of non-monetary public funds, the Company ranked No. 3 in the industry. At the end of December 2024, the Company had 356 branches and business departments nationwide, with a presence in 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the PRC. The number and coverage ratio of business outlets in the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ranked No. 1 in the industry, providing a wide range of market reach for the Company’s business and laying important support for customer accumulation and service. In 2024, the Company also obtained the qualification for the first batch of pilot work for the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Scheme, marking a solid pace to deepen the cooperation between institutions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, catering the customers’ demands of wealth allocation.
In respect of institutional clients, the outstanding research capacity of the Company enjoys a high reputation in the industry and received numerous honors. The Company has won awards from mainstream organizations and ranked among the top: Best Analyst of Securities Times , Best Analyst of New Fortune , China Securities Industry Analyst Golden Bull Award, etc. As of the end of December 2024, the Group’s equity research covered 28 industries and 993 A-share listed companies in China, and 169 Hong Kong and overseas listed companies. In 2024, focusing on the main line of Chinese-style modernization, the Company held large-scale strategy conferences such as “Focusing on New Quality Productive Forces ”, “Strengthening the Foundation and Cultivating the Roots” and “Forseeing 2025”to build a communication platform between listed companies and institutional investors to serve the development of the real economy, and also held an investment strategy seminar in Hong Kong, with a focus on serving overseas institutional investors.
In respect of corporate clients, guided by client demand, the Company has built an investment banking service system with a full business chain throughout the life cycle, adhered to the original purpose of serving the real economy with finance and giving priority to functionality, as well as endeavored to develop into an industrial investment bank and a technology investment bank. As of the end of 2024, the Company sponsored a total of 44 companies listed on the market as the lead brokerage, of which 84.09% were “specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative” enterprises. The Company attached great importance to serving national strategies with bond business and facilitated high-quality development with financial power. During the Reporting Period, the Company acted as the lead underwriter for 110 tranches of various science and technology innovation bonds with an underwritten amount of RMB34.479 billion; acted as the lead underwriter for 18 tranches of various low-carbon transformation and green bonds with an underwritten amount of RMB5.631 billion; and acted as the lead underwriter for 5 tranches of rural revitalization bonds with an underwritten amount of RMB1.119 billion. The Company took multiple measures to strengthen the quality control of its practices and received a Class A rating in the 2024 quality evaluation of bond practices of securities companies organized by the Securities Association.
Moreover, centering around the guidance of national industrial policies, financial policies and regional development policies, the Company practiced the business model of “One Guangfa” by holding a number of large-scale M&A themed events, such as the forum on merger and acquisition of new quality productive forces and the inaugural conference of the Guangdong capital market M&A alliance, and building a merger and acquisition business ecosystem to provide customers with multi-level and all-round comprehensive services, promoting the orderly circulation of assets and capital. During the Reporting Period, the industrial research institute of the Company continued to build an ecosystem of production, learning, research, investment and financing integration, empowered the development of various business segments, provided research support for policy formulation and industrial planning of government departments, and explored the establishment of industrial incubation and transformation cooperation mechanism with key scientific research universities to play a role as a bridge of “technology-finance-industry”.
Deepening the Development of "Five Major Area" and Actively Fulfill Social Responsibilities
As one of the few major brokerages which have not accepted investment or undergone restructuring due to operating losses among the first batch of brokers established from the end of the 1980’s to the early 1990’s, GF Securities always maintains a strong sense of family and country, upholds its mission of “creating values to realize the dream of serving the country with financial services”. Moreover, in making continuous progress in developing its corporate values of “inquisitiveness and integrity” and carrying forward its excellent cultural genes of an “army of PhDs”, with knowledge as the guarantee and professionalism as the cornerstone, GF Securities will actively serve the real economy for both quantity and quality.
During the Reporting Period, the Company proactively integrated into the national development and made new progress in the in-depth development of the “Five Major Areas”. The Company made efforts to support the development of the area of technology and finance by making equity investment in 30 I&T enterprises, entered into equity financing and debt financing arrangements for 42 technology enterprises with a total amount of RMB147.0 billion, and established 6 investment funds for technological innovation enterprises, so as to cater the needs of various technology innovation entities for investment and financing. The Company also continued to build a green financial service system and published 11 in-depth research reports such as the Blue Book on the Development of the Green Energy Industry to support the research in the area of green industries. In addition, the Company has underwritten and issued bonds for 7 green ABS projects with a raised fund of RMB14.759 billion, thereby providing diverse financial solutions for green industries. The Company has made investment in green bonds through its owned funds with an amount of RMB5.993 billion, thereby introducing “financial water” that helps the development of the green industries. The Company has expanded the business layout of the pension finance business by issuing a total of 24 products of pension target funds with a total amount of RMB6.9 billion, so as to develop a multi-level pension finance service system. The Company continued to explore possibilities for application and implementation of digital finance and put a total of 43 large-scale AI models into practice, which has help the Company maintain its leading position in the industry in terms of number of scenarios and business coverage.
At the same time, the Company also commits to the philosophy of finance for the country and finance for the people and proactively performed its social responsibilities. During the Reporting Period, the Company focused on areas of rural revitalisation by providing student subsidies and boosting education, finance empowerment and medical assistance, and has made social welfare expenses at an amount of RMB22.6760 million. Meanwhile, the total social welfare expenses incurred by GF Charity Foundation established by the Group, amounted to over RMB300 million. In terms of improving ESG governance, the Company has strengthened its comprehensive risk management, strictly abided by compliance operation requirements to enhance investor protection and shareholder return, and achieved a total social contribution of RMB4.29 per share. The Company has been included as a constituent stock in the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainable Index Series for many consecutive years.
In the future, GF Securities will follow the guidance of China’s socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era, serve national strategies in the course of its development, embrace the trend of technological revolution in its development, and pursue innovation and reform for its development, thus opening a new page in the development of the Company into an international first-class investment bank.