CICC’s Investment Banking Chief Promoted to CEO

China International Capital Corp. Ltd. (CICC), the country’s first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank and one of its top brokerages, has named company veteran Huang Zhaohui as its new chief executive.

The 55-year-old, who was head of the investment banking division, replaces Bi Mingjian, 64, who has stepped down after four years as CEO “due to personal career planning consideration,” the Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement on Monday.

Huang joined CICC from China Construction Bank (CCB) in 1998, three years after the company was set up as a joint venture between CCB, one of the country’s big four state-owned commercial lenders, and U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley. He was appointed head of investment banking in April 2013.

A brokerage source familiar with Huang’s career at CICC said that he played a significant role in the brokerage’s efforts to help some large state-owned enterprises go public.

Huang is also being nominated to join the board of directors as part of a broader reshuffle that will see seven of the 11 members step down and be replaced. An extraordinary general meeting to elect the new board will take place on Feb. 17 in Hong Kong.

Brokerage rankings

According to Bi’s biography on CICC’s website, he helped set up the investment bank in 1995 and held various positions at the company before leaving in 2012 to join Hopu Investment Management Co. Ltd., a Beijing-based private equity firm, as managing partner. He returned to CICC in 2015 as CEO.

Morgan Stanley sold its 34.3% stake in CICC at the end of 2010 to several entities including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The investment bank’s current biggest shareholder is Central Huijin Investment Ltd., an investment arm of China’s sovereign wealth fund, with a 46.2% holding, according to the company’s third-quarter report (link in Chinese). Appliance manufacturer Haier Group Corp. is the second-largest shareholder with a 9.5% stake, while internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. also have equity.

Data (link in Chinese) from the Securities Association of China, a self-regulatory body for the securities industry, show that CICC was the ninth-largest brokerage in 2018 in terms of total assets and ranked sixth in terms of revenue. CICC’s total assets were 322.9 billion yuan ($46.4 billion) at the end of September, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings report. 

In a survey conducted jointly by Caixin Media and Institutional Investor, CICC’s China equity sales team was ranked first by both domestic and international investors in 2019, maintaining a winning streak that started when the survey debuted in 2012.

CICC’s businesses include investment banking, equity sales, fixed income trading, wealth and asset management, and research.

The investment bank lost ground after 2011 as fewer state-owned enterprises applied for initial public offerings. In 2014, CICC ranked 29th in the brokerage league table in terms of total assets and 20th in terms of revenue. The firm subsequently expanded into the retail brokerage sector and wealth management services while maintaining its core businesses in investment banking, purchasing China Investment Securities for 16.7 billion yuan in 2016. China Investment Securities was renamed CICC Wealth Management this year.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com)

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