Top Ten Brokerages Reshuffled! "Two Super Giants and Multiple Strong Players" Pattern Emerges, Two Business Lines Become Key Tracks

With Guosen Securities releasing its 2025 performance report on the evening of April 17, the final rankings of the top ten securities firms in the industry were set.

Compared to 2024, the list of the top ten remains largely familiar, though the order has changed: CITIC SEC and GTHT form a "two super giants" camp, with their combined revenue and net profit each accounting for nearly 40% of the total for the top ten; GF SEC's net profit rose to fourth place, while CMSC fell to sixth. From a performance driver perspective, proprietary trading and brokerage services constitute the dual engines of growth. Among the top ten brokerages, proprietary income grew 33% year-on-year, and brokerage fee income grew 48%, while cross-border business is also emerging as the third core growth curve.

Looking ahead, internationalization and technology empowerment have become key tracks for competition among leading brokerages. Under the policy guidance of "building first-class investment banks," industry concentration is expected to increase further.

Formation of the "Two Super Giants and Multiple Strong Players" Pattern

In 2025, excluding Huatai Securities which was affected by one-time gains from disposing of subsidiaries in 2024, all other leading brokerages achieved double-digit growth in performance. Moreover, benefiting from improved capital efficiency, their net profit attributable to parent company shareholders grew at a faster rate than revenue.

Among them, excluding GTHT which was impacted by mergers, the brokerages with the highest performance growth were GF SEC, CICC, and Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, with revenue increases exceeding 30% year-on-year and net profit attributable to parent company shareholders increasing by 42%, 72%, and 68% respectively.

This strong performance has rewritten the landscape of the top ten securities firms. Based on net profit attributable to parent company shareholders, the top ten brokerages are ranked as follows: CITIC SEC (30.076 billion yuan), GTHT (27.809 billion yuan), Huatai Securities (16.383 billion yuan), GF SEC (13.702 billion yuan), China Galaxy (12.520 billion yuan), CMSC (12.350 billion yuan), GUOSEN SECURITIES (11.073 billion yuan), Shenwan Hongyuan Securities (10.363 billion yuan), CICC (9.791 billion yuan), and CSC Financial (9.439 billion yuan).

Compared to 2024, GTHT surpassed Huatai Securities to take second place. GF SEC and CMSC swapped positions, with the former rising from sixth to fourth and the latter falling to sixth. CSC Financial also declined significantly, slipping from eighth to tenth. CICC and Shenwan Hongyuan Securities each moved up one position.

Overall, the strength of leading brokerages continues to enhance. In 2025, the top ten brokerages accounted for 67% and 70% of the industry's total revenue and net profit respectively, indicating further increased concentration. At the same time, the "billion-yuan net profit club" continued to expand, with GF SEC, GUOSEN SECURITIES, and Shenwan Hongyuan Securities newly joining, while two other brokerages are also close to crossing the billion-yuan net profit threshold. Among these, CITIC SEC and GTHT form the industry's "two super giants" pattern, with their combined revenue and net profit each accounting for nearly 40% of the total for the top ten.

CITIC SEC Takes First Place in Three Business Categories

From a business structure perspective, consistent with the overall industry performance, proprietary trading and brokerage services form the dual engines of growth for leading brokerages.

According to the calculation standard "proprietary income = investment income + fair value changes - investment income from associates and joint ventures," the top ten brokerages' combined proprietary income was approximately 160.8 billion yuan, representing a 33% year-on-year increase and accounting for about 44% of their combined revenue. The top ten brokerages' combined brokerage fees totaled 94.962 billion yuan, a 48% year-on-year increase, accounting for 26% of their combined revenue.

In terms of proprietary trading, CITIC SEC led with 38.604 billion yuan in revenue, contributing over 50% of the company's total revenue. Similar situations were observed with CICC and Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, where proprietary income accounted for around 50% of total revenue. However, in terms of year-on-year growth rates, GTHT and GF SEC led with increases of 72% and 60% respectively.

Proprietary trading has traditionally been seen as "dependent on market conditions," with performance highly reliant on market trends. However, according to Kong Xiang's team of non-bank analysts at GUOSEN SECURITIES, the investment businesses of leading brokerages differ from traditional models. By expanding OCI account allocations, they can effectively smooth out the cyclical fluctuations of investment performance. Meanwhile, with the increasing diversification of stock and bond strategies—including but not limited to quantitative neutrality, derivative arbitrage, high-yield bond investments, and cross-market hedging—proprietary trading has shifted from directional speculation to active management based on asset allocation and risk pricing, making investment income sources more diversified and stable.

In the brokerage sector, GTHT surpassed CITIC SEC with 15.138 billion yuan in revenue compared to CITIC's 14.753 billion yuan, swapping the top spot, though the gap between them was small. For leading brokerages, the contribution of net brokerage fees to total revenue typically ranges between 20% and 30%, while for CMSC, GUOSEN SECURITIES, China Galaxy, and CSC Financial, this proportion exceeds 30%, and these four companies also rank among the leaders in brokerage income growth. Looking solely at client volume, GUOSEN SECURITIES boasts over 23 million brokerage clients, leading the industry.

The recovery in equity business also cannot be overlooked in boosting the performance of leading brokerages. GUOSEN SECURITIES was the only brokerage whose net investment banking fees declined, dropping by 12%. Overall, the top ten brokerages' combined net investment banking fees were approximately 27.1 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of about 43%. CICC led with a 63% increase, while GTHT and CITIC SEC also exceeded 50%. However, based on total revenue, CITIC SEC took the "champion" title in net investment banking fees with 6.336 billion yuan, followed by CICC (5.031 billion yuan) and GTHT (4.657 billion yuan).

In asset management, in 2025, Huatai Securities, GUOSEN SECURITIES, and Shenwan Hongyuan Securities did not achieve growth in net fee income, failing to have a positive effect on performance. Relatively speaking, Haitong Securities and CICC showed strong growth, with increases of 64% and 31% respectively. By scale, CITIC SEC still took the crown, remaining the only brokerage to stand above the "billion-yuan" threshold.

Regarding the divergent performance in asset management, Kong Xiang's team pointed out in industry analysis that the core constraint lies in the fact that the industry is still in a critical period of transformation towards active management. Channel business continues to shrink, cultivating active management capabilities requires time accumulation, and there is fierce competition from similar institutions such as bank wealth management and fund companies. Growth bottlenecks have not yet been fully broken through. However, he believes that leading brokerages will lead the industry with their strong investment research capabilities and extensive client resources.

Internationalization and Technology Empowerment Become Key to Future Competition

From a business structure perspective, besides proprietary trading and wealth management, cross-border business is becoming the third core growth curve for leading brokerages. According to annual reports, whether in terms of revenue growth or proportion of total revenue, the performance of various brokerages' international subsidiaries has been impressive. For example, CICC International, a subsidiary of CICC, achieved revenue of 15.208 billion HKD and net profit of 5.085 billion HKD in 2025, representing year-on-year increases of 41% and 78% respectively.

"The profit contribution from brokerages' international businesses is achieving a qualitative leap, evolving from a 'supplementary profit segment' to one of the 'core profit pillars,' with the strategic importance of overseas businesses in the overall profitability system of brokerages becoming increasingly prominent," Kong Xiang's team believes.

A non-bank analyst at CICC believes that looking forward, cross-border proprietary trading and customer-driven businesses along with Hong Kong IPO businesses will be the incremental areas for international operations. With the standardized development of OTC derivatives businesses, overseas capital business still holds significant growth potential. At the same time, leading brokerages have greater advantages in Hong Kong IPO businesses, which will further amplify the leading advantages of leading brokerages in investment banking.

From a longer-term perspective, under the policy orientation of "supporting the good and limiting the bad," relying on full-business chain layouts, the pattern of leading brokerages guiding industry development will become even more pronounced. Kong Xiang's team believes that currently, the industry is accelerating its transformation towards diverse value areas such as capital intermediation, asset management, cross-border finance, and financial technology. Leading brokerages, leveraging their advantages in capital, technology, and talent, have significant first-mover advantages in transformation, with market shares continuously increasing; smaller and medium-sized brokerages face resource constraints, resulting in relatively lagging transformation steps.

A non-bank analyst at CICC expects that in 2026, industry performance may shift from universal growth to differentiation. Affected by the base of stock and fund transaction volumes and commission rates, the contribution of brokerage business to performance growth may decline; in volatile market conditions, investment income growth rates will also face differentiation. Leading brokerages, benefiting from more stable proprietary trading businesses and more prominent advantages in investment banking and asset management, may enjoy more advantageous performance growth rates.

Operating plans in the 2025 annual reports also serve as a window into how leading brokerages plan for 2026. Across the ten leading brokerages, "building first-class investment banks" is a common manifesto, with serving national strategies and doing well in the five major articles of finance generally placed at the forefront. GUOSEN SECURITIES, China Galaxy, CMSC, etc., all emphasize functional leadership driving profitability, precisely adapting to the needs of the real economy.

In terms of operational direction, internationalization and technology empowerment have become key tracks for future competition. GTHT explicitly proposed "accelerating the promotion of international development," Huatai Securities aims to "build an integrated service capability covering major global markets," while CSC Financial strives to "increase the proportion of international business income." CICC and China Galaxy also consider overseas layout as a core lever for expanding incremental space. Regarding technology empowerment, GTHT proposed an "ALL in AI" strategy, Huatai Securities comprehensively deepened "AI-driven business reconstruction and organizational evolution," and CSC Financial advanced "Artificial Intelligence+" construction of digital intelligent investment banks.

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