CITIC and Guotai Haitong's ten core metrics showdown: comprehensive ranking overview

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Financial Associated Press, March 28 (Reporter Wang Yuling) With CITIC Securities and Guotai Junan’s 2025 annual reports being disclosed one after another, this highly anticipated “battle of the champions” finally has panoramic data support.

From scale expansion to capital efficiency, from domestic fundamentals to global pricing power, the two leading brokerages are engaged in an all-out fierce competition across 10 core indicators. Through these data comparisons, the distinctly different resource endowments and strategic orientations of the two brokerages are clearly visible.

Capital base and profitability

1. Total assets, net assets: Guotai Junan wins

In the most intuitive size comparison, Guotai Junan successfully topped the list with the scale effect post-merger.

Guotai Junan’s total assets are 2.11 trillion yuan, with a net asset attributable to shareholders of 330.417 billion yuan; CITIC Securities has total assets of 2.08 trillion yuan and net assets attributable to shareholders of 319.9 billion yuan. The merged Guotai Junan has built a solid capital base. This victory in this indicator means that Guotai Junan possesses a deeper moat for future risk resistance and the development of heavy capital businesses.

2. Operating income, net profit: CITIC Securities wins

Although it has lost the throne of asset scale, in terms of absolute volume of revenue and profitability, CITIC Securities remains the undisputed “king of profit.”

In 2025, CITIC Securities achieved revenue of 74.854 billion yuan (up 28.79% year-on-year), with net profit attributable to shareholders exceeding 30 billion yuan, reaching 30.076 billion yuan (up 38.58% year-on-year). Guotai Junan achieved revenue of 63.107 billion yuan in 2025 (up 87.4% year-on-year), with net profit attributable to shareholders of 27.809 billion yuan (up 113.52% year-on-year).

However, Guotai Junan’s significant non-recurring gains and losses from the merger make the net profit after deduction more reflective of the real situation. Guotai Junan’s net profit attributable to shareholders after deduction is 21.4 billion yuan, while CITIC Securities’ net profit attributable to shareholders after deduction is 30.3 billion yuan.

In absolute terms, Guotai Junan still has a considerable gap from CITIC Securities, but benefiting from the merger, Guotai Junan has shown a doubling growth rate in revenue and net profit.

3. Profitability ROE: CITIC Securities wins

ROE (return on equity) is a key touchstone for assessing capital utilization ability and essentially reflects the art of a brokerage’s “operating leverage.”

In 2025, CITIC Securities’ ROE rose by 2.5 percentage points year-on-year to 10.59%. After deduction, CITIC Securities’ ROE is 10.67%. At the performance meeting, CITIC Securities’ management also clearly stated that, under the policy dividend of “moderately widening the leverage range of quality institutions,” the company’s future comprehensive service capabilities still have room for improvement. Guotai Junan’s ROE is 9.78%, and the ROE after deduction is 7.49%.

Mergers in brokerage firms often come with a one-time increase in substantial net assets, which temporarily dilutes the yield. Currently, Guotai Junan is in the digestion period after integration; as Guotai Junan smoothly and efficiently completes the integration of the parent company and deeply merges personnel and business, it is believed that future ROE is expected to accelerate.

4. Shareholder returns and dividends: Absolute values and dividend ratios each have winners

At the end of capital strength and profitability, the focus is on how to reward shareholders. Under the new policy direction of “Guojiao No. 9” reinforcing dividends, both giants have shown great sincerity.

CITIC Securities plans to distribute a total cash dividend (including interim dividends) of 10.374 billion yuan, with the pure cash dividend amount accounting for 35.73% of the net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders in the consolidated financial statements, and the cash dividend accounting for 34.24% of the net profit attributable to shareholders after deduction, marking the highest dividend record since the company’s establishment.

For Guotai Junan, a cash dividend of 8.757 billion yuan is proposed, in addition to the 1.211 billion yuan share repurchase implemented this year, accounting for 46.60% of the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders after deduction for 2025. Guotai Junan slightly edges out in terms of investor returns.

Wealth management and credit business

5. Wealth management: Guotai Junan wins

From the perspective of net income from brokerage business fees, CITIC Securities is 14.753 billion yuan, slightly lower than Guotai Junan’s 15.138 billion yuan. The net income from brokerage business fees generally includes income from futures brokerage, so looking at the net income from securities agency trading business, CITIC Securities is 10.025 billion yuan, still lower than Guotai Junan’s 11.398 billion yuan.

Guotai Junan has 39.33 million domestic clients, presenting an absolute “ballast” effect in retail fundamentals, with a product holding scale of 656.3 billion yuan. In contrast, CITIC Securities has over 17 million clients, but its financial product holding amount exceeding 800 billion yuan highlights its moat among high-net-worth clients and the extremely high contribution per client.

Guotai Junan wins in a vast breadth of inclusivity, while CITIC Securities demonstrates the stickiness and contribution of high-net-worth clients.

6. Credit business: Guotai Junan wins

The credit business is a typical heavy capital business, and this is also the area where the “1+1>2” scale effect is most directly realized. Relying on the industry-leading total assets and client base post-merger, Guotai Junan’s capital throughput is thoroughly released.

By the end of 2025, Guotai Junan’s margin financing and securities lending balance surged to 246.206 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.9%, setting a new historical high, successfully surpassing CITIC Securities (207.652 billion yuan) in the credit sector. In terms of net interest income, benefiting from the addition of financing leasing business from the merger and increased interest income from margin financing and securities lending, Guotai Junan’s net interest income for 2025 is 8.278 billion yuan, far exceeding CITIC Securities’ 1.63 billion yuan.

Investment banking, asset management, and proprietary trading

7. Investment banking: CITIC Securities wins

In 2025, CITIC Securities dominated the market with investment banking revenue of 6.336 billion yuan, leading in domestic equity (over 270 billion yuan), bonds (2.21 trillion yuan), and M&A transaction scale, firmly holding the market’s top position; while Guotai Junan’s investment banking revenue was 4.657 billion yuan, establishing an advantage in project landing frequency and reserves, with its domestic IPO lead underwriters (19) and projects under review (44) both ranking first, and also leading in the number of Hong Kong stock placements and offshore bond issuances among Chinese-funded brokerages, with ample backup reserves.

8. Asset management: CITIC Securities wins

CITIC Securities’ asset management revenue is 12.177 billion yuan, far exceeding Guotai Junan’s 6.393 billion yuan.

CITIC Securities’ asset management scale reaches 1.8 trillion yuan (with a market share of 14.02% in the private asset management market, ranked first in the industry). In the public fund sector, CITIC Holdings’ Huaxia Fund’s management scale reaches as high as 3 trillion yuan.

Guotai Junan’s asset management scale at the end of the period is 750.664 billion yuan, with non-monetary public fund scale exceeding 72 billion yuan; Guotai Junan’s controlled Huaxia Fund’s management scale is 888.31 billion yuan, and its controlled Haifutong Fund’s management scale is 565.637 billion yuan, while its equity in the Fortune Fund’s management scale has also first surpassed 2 trillion yuan.

9. Proprietary trading: CITIC Securities wins

CITIC Securities’ proprietary trading business (including fair value changes) reached 37.035 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 46.5%. Guotai Junan’s proprietary trading revenue is approximately 24.57 billion yuan.

Going global to compete

10. International business: CITIC Securities wins

Against the backdrop of regulatory encouragement to build “international first-class investment banks,” cross-border business layout is becoming the core battlefield for leading institutions to win the future. In 2025, CITIC Securities’ international business achieved revenue of 3.3 billion USD (up 48% year-on-year) and net profit of 910 million USD (up 72% year-on-year), both hitting record highs. Relying on deep cross-regional layouts, CITIC is accelerating the creation of “the preferred investment bank for investing in China and for Chinese investments.” Guotai Junan’s overseas business covers a global service network across 17 countries and regions, accelerating the “opening up” in key areas such as Southeast Asia, but is currently still in the transition period of merger integration. CITIC Securities, leveraging its mature global network and accelerated internationalization, has established a significant lead in the international competition.

Conclusion

This peak competition across 10 core indicators reveals that CITIC Securities showcases a more comprehensive suppression with 6 indicators in its favor; while Guotai Junan, through its historic merger, has achieved a historic reversal in capital strength, client base, wealth management, and several heavy capital businesses, which may further consolidate its leading advantage.

On the surface, this is a contest of scale and efficiency, but under the grand narrative of “building a powerful financial nation” and “creating an international first-class investment bank,” the confrontation between the two is essentially a strategic divergence of China’s leading brokerages: CITIC Securities is accelerating “going out,” represented by over 20% contribution rate of overseas profits, competing for global pricing power; Guotai Junan, with nearly 40 million retail clients and over 2.1 trillion yuan in asset base, is constructing a financial “ballast” to serve national strategies and the real economy.

As the industry completely bids farewell to homogenization and internal competition, China’s securities industry officially enters the “two super, many strong” era. This is no longer a simple domestic stock game; standing at a historical new starting point where total assets of both surpass 2 trillion yuan, these two Chinese financial giants have set sail from the inland river.