Behind China Merchants Securities' dual hundred-billion performance: Executive compensation halved in 2025, overseas business falls behind

Hong Yuxin, intern reporter for The Sing Tao Daily, Shenzhen report

"Leverage strengths, open new horizons, and strive for excellence" – this was the message from Huo Da, Chairman of China Merchants Securities, in the 2025 annual report.

In 2025, China Merchants Securities (06099.HK/600999.SH), with revenue of 24.972 billion yuan and net profit of 12.35 billion yuan, firmly entered the 'dual hundred-billion' club among brokerages.According to statistics, there are eight securities companies with both revenue and net profit exceeding tens of billions in 2025, including CITIC Securities, Guotai Haitong, Huatai Securities, GF Securities, China Galaxy, East Money, and CICC, in addition to China Merchants Securities.

Notably, this is not the first time for China Merchants Securities to join the 'double tens of billions' group—it obtained the qualification back in 2021. However, significant fluctuations in net profit over the following years made its position in the top tier somewhat unstable. It wasn't until 2025 that the company solidified its standing in the industry.

Annual report data shows that in 2025, China Merchants Securities achieved a year-on-year revenue growth of 19.53% and a year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to shareholders of 18.91%, with total assets surpassing 750 billion yuan. Its core businesses performed outstandingly: wealth management and institutional services accounted for 55% of total revenue, with income from these two divisions increasing by an impressive 35.10% year-on-year, becoming the key driver of the company's performance growth.

In terms of dividend distribution, China Merchants Securities plans to distribute a cash dividend of 0.449 yuan per share (including tax) to all shareholders. The proposed total cash dividend payout for the year amounts to approximately 3.905 billion yuan, bringing the total cash dividend distribution for 2025 to about 4.94 billion yuan, accounting for 40% of the net profit attributable to shareholders in the consolidated financial statements for that year.

The equity structure also saw new developments, with the annual report showing that in 2025, China Merchants Securities welcomed four new shareholders: CCCC Capital, China Securities Finance, Hong Kong Central Clearing, and Construction Bank, holding shares of 2.13%, 1.96%, 1.45%, and 1.17%, respectively, further diversifying the shareholder base.

As of the closing on April 14, China Merchants Securities' A-shares were trading at 15.92 yuan per share, up 0.63%, with a total market value of 138.449 billion yuan; H-shares were trading at 13.84 Hong Kong dollars per share, up 0.29%, with a total market value of 120.36 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Personnel Shakeup Coupled with Halving of Executive Compensation

In 2025, the executive team of China Merchants Securities underwent intensive personnel adjustments.The annual report indicates that during the reporting period, the company experienced 13 executive personnel changes, with four directors and senior executives departing, accounting for 20% of the total number of executives at the beginning of the reporting period. According to Xingdao’s review of previous annual reports, the number of personnel changes at China Merchants Securities in 2023 and 2024 was 18 and 19 times, respectively.

▲Source: China Merchants Securities 2025 Annual Report

Changes in the core management team have drawn particular attention. Huo Da, Chairman of China Merchants Securities, has been at the helm since May 2017 and concurrently served as Chief Information Officer from March 2022 to March 2025. Eight months after stepping down from that role, he resumed his position at the end of 2025.

The CEO position also underwent a generational transition. Wu Zongmin, the former President and Executive Director of China Merchants Securities, retired between May and June 2025, and Zhu Jiangtao took over. It is reported that Zhu Jiangtao is a 'veteran of China Merchants' with over 20 years of industry experience. From August 2023 to May 2025, he served as an Executive Director of China Merchants Securities and previously held roles such as Deputy General Manager and Chief Risk Officer of China Merchants Bank, positioning him to further deepen the synergistic development between China Merchants Securities and China Merchants Bank.

Accompanying the personnel shake-up was a continued decline in executive compensation.According to The Sing Tao, except for independent non-executive directors, the annual salaries of senior executives at China Merchants Securities fell by 10%-20% annually from 2021 to 2025, with the rate of decline widening each year.This trend aligns with the industry-wide pattern of 'executives' pay decreasing while employees’ pay rises.'

Take Huo Da, the highest-paid chairman, whose compensation dropped from RMB 3.88 million in 2021 to RMB 2.2807 million in 2025, shrinking by 41% over five years. The reduction in former President Wu Zongmin's pay was even more pronounced, plummeting from RMB 3.2286 million in 2022 to RMB 561,300 in 2025, marking an 82% decrease.

Overall data indicates that in 2025, the total pre-tax remuneration of senior executives at China Merchants Securities amounted to RMB 13.507 million, averaging RMB 900,500 per person, a 14% increase year-on-year. However, this level still falls significantly short of the average compensation exceeding RMB 1 million per person from 2021 to 2023. Meanwhile, the company’s average employee salary reached RMB 569,400, growing by 24% year-on-year, surpassing the growth rate of executive compensation. From 2022 to 2024, the company’s average employee salary remained around RMB 450,000.

It is worth noting that the rise in average salary at China Merchants Securities is closely tied to workforce optimization. In 2025, the number of employees at China Merchants Securities was 12,792, a 5% decrease year-on-year. Streamlining the workforce indirectly pushed up the average salary levels.

Overseas business revenue ranks at the bottom.

As leading brokerages accelerate their overseas expansion and seize opportunities in cross-border business, the performance of China Merchants Securities' overseas operations lags significantly behind.

According to the announcement by China Merchants Securities, as of the first quarter of 2025, its overseas core operating platform, China Merchants Securities International, achieved a net profit of 82.026 million yuan, total assets of 51.288 billion yuan, total liabilities of 41.280 billion yuan, and net assets of 10.008 billion yuan.

▲Source: China Merchants Securities Overseas Regulatory Announcement

To strengthen its overseas business, China Merchants Securities has initiated a capital increase plan. On December 8, 2025, China Merchants Securities announced that the company agreed to allow China Merchants Securities International to make phased capital injections into its wholly-owned subsidiaries, up to 9 billion Hong Kong dollars. The first capital injection will target China Merchants Securities (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., with an injection scale not exceeding 4 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Public information shows that China Merchants Securities International was established on July 14, 1999, with paid-in capital of 6.454 billion Hong Kong dollars, registered in Hong Kong, and its main business is investment operations. It serves as the core vehicle for China Merchants Securities' overseas expansion. However, in recent years, the revenue scale of China Merchants Securities International has grown slowly, and its performance has been highly volatile, failing to keep up with the pace of international development within the industry.

When comparing the overseas business performance of leading securities firms during the same period, the gap between China Merchants Securities and its peers becomes even more evident.According to previous reports, in the first half of 2025, overseas revenues of top brokerage firms such as CICC, Guotai Haitong, and GF Securities reached 4.024 billion yuan, 2.459 billion yuan, and 1.140 billion yuan respectively, while China Merchants Securities' overseas revenue for the same period was only 477 million yuan.This placed China Merchants Securities at the bottom among leading brokerages.

Reviewing the performance trend of China Merchants Securities International, its performance has fluctuated significantly: from 2019 to 2021, the company's revenue grew from 894 million Hong Kong dollars to 1.731 billion Hong Kong dollars, and net profit increased from 216 million Hong Kong dollars to 876 million Hong Kong dollars, achieving steady growth. However, in 2022, its performance plummeted sharply, with revenue dropping to 309 million Hong Kong dollars and a net loss of 304 million Hong Kong dollars. Although there was some recovery in 2023-2024, with revenues reaching 1.001 billion Hong Kong dollars and 1.199 billion Hong Kong dollars respectively, and net profits of 221 million Hong Kong dollars and 457 million Hong Kong dollars, it still failed to return to the peak levels seen in 2021.

Industry insiders analyzed that the current internationalization layout of securities firms has entered a deep-water zone. Although China Merchants Securities has doubled down on its overseas business through additional capital investments, it will be difficult to close the gap with top-tier securities firms in the short term. How to break through business bottlenecks and achieve high-quality development in overseas operations has become an urgent challenge for the firm.

36K Views