Net profit hits a new high, but core businesses are halved. How substantial are the performance results of this H-share brokerage rushing forward?

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The first annual results report since Chuangchuang Securities officially filed for an H-share listing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2025 is out.

This set of results can be described as a mix of joy and worry.

“Joy” is that both operating revenue and net profit set record highs, reaching 2.528 billion yuan and 1.056 billion yuan, respectively. In particular, for the investment-related business, revenue in 2025 was 1.554 billion yuan, up 45.83% year over year. Its contribution accounts for more than 60% of Chuangchuang Securities’ total operating revenue.

“Worry” is that revenue from its traditional asset-management business—an area where it has long had advantages—fell sharply. In 2025, that business recorded revenue of only 477 million yuan, down 47.55% year over year.

Moreover, its two subsidiaries—private equity subsidiary Chuangchuang Zhengdesheng Capital Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Zhengdesheng”), and futures subsidiary Chuangchuang Beijing Futures Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Beijing Futures”)—both incurred performance losses in 2025, losing 19.0857 million yuan and 10.3604 million yuan, respectively. The futures subsidiary was also issued a regulatory notice by the relevant authorities for inadequate oversight of intermediary business and client trade management.

On one side, record-high performance; on the other, the halving of an advantageous business and ongoing “bleeding” at its subsidiaries. This mid-tier brokerage that is actively pushing its way into an H-share listing—what kind of answer has it delivered?

Breaking down the record-high performance: investment business becomes the “load-bearing pillar,” wealth management shows early signs of strength

Opening up Chuangchuang Securities’ 2025 annual report, if you look solely at operating revenue and net profit, the performance is still fairly solid—2.528 billion yuan and 1.056 billion yuan, respectively, with both setting new historical highs.

If you extend the timeline, its performance in recent years has also been noteworthy. Take operating revenue as an example: it rose from 931 million yuan at the end of 2017 to 2.528 billion yuan now—an increase of more than 170% over eight years. Industry ranking has improved as well: in 2017 it ranked 77th, but by 2024 it had climbed to 49th (because the number of brokerages disclosing their 2025 annual reports as of the time of publication is relatively small, the 2025 ranking cannot yet be predicted).

In October 2025, Chuangchuang Securities submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At that time, the prospectus showed that according to data from Frost & Sullivan, under Chinese accounting standards, from 2022 to 2024, Chuangchuang Securities’ revenue and net profit compound annual growth rates ranked fifth and tenth, respectively, among A-share listed brokerages in China.

However, if you compare it horizontally, Chuangchuang Securities’ performance improvement in 2025 is not particularly outstanding. Its year-over-year growth rates for 2025 operating revenue and net profit were 4.58% and 7.26%, respectively. And according to brokerages’ published 2025 performance forecasts, there are plenty of listed brokerages whose net profit year-over-year growth is 50% or higher. Even Citic Securities, which has the largest base, is still expected to have net profit growth of around 38%.

This means that although Chuangchuang Securities’ 2025 operating revenue and net profit increased again compared with its own prior year, its industry ranking is very likely to decline.

So what drove Chuangchuang Securities’ performance improvement, and what limited its growth to a relatively modest level?

First, let’s look at the drivers.

Among Chuangchuang Securities’ various sub-business lines, the best performer is the investment-related business. In 2025, it achieved revenue of 1.554 billion yuan, with a year-over-year growth rate as high as 45.83%. Moreover, its share of Chuangchuang Securities’ 2025 operating revenue exceeded 60%.

When a single business line accounts for 60% of total operating revenue, the sheer scale of the investment-related business’s contribution to Chuangchuang Securities is evident. From another data point—total operating revenue excluding investment-related business—the investment-related business’s contribution to boosting Chuangchuang Securities’ performance is even more significant.

In 2025, Chuangchuang Securities’ operating revenue was 2.528 billion yuan; after excluding investment-related business, it dropped to only 974 million yuan. In 2024, operating revenue excluding investment-related business was 1.353 billion yuan. This means that if you do not count the investment-related business, Chuangchuang Securities’ 2025 revenue would show a downward trend. The extent of Chuangchuang Securities’ reliance on the investment-related business is clear.

It is also worth noting that, over the full year of 2025, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 18.41% cumulatively, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 29.87% cumulatively, the CSI 300 rose 17.66% cumulatively, the ChiNext Index rose 49.57% cumulatively, and the North Star 50 Index rose 38.80% cumulatively. This suggests that for brokerages with a higher proportion of equity investments, their 2025 investment-related business revenue will most likely perform very well.

Compared with leading brokerages that have more diversified and balanced business structures, mid-sized and small brokerages often allocate a higher share to the investment-related business, which is easier to set up and ramp. As a result, in years when the stock market rally is strong, their investment-related income surges; in years when market conditions are poor, that income falls sharply or even turns into losses. This is precisely what the market often calls “proprietary trading business as the decisive factor between winning and losing performance.”

Besides the investment-related business, another relatively strong business at Chuangchuang Securities in 2025 is wealth management, which generated operating revenue of 497 million yuan for the full year, up 22.33% year over year.

Similar to the investment-related business, wealth management is also significantly affected by A-share market conditions. In 2025, better performance in the A-share market was a key driver behind the increase in wealth management business revenue across the securities industry. Chuangchuang Securities is no exception. With the A-share market recovering, its wealth management business transformation started to show results at the beginning of 2025.

Chuangchuang Securities attributes the increase in wealth management business revenue to “mainly due to an increase in net income from the brokerage and securities dealing business and net income from securities investment advisory services.” The rise in investment advisory revenue, in fact, is an important manifestation of the transformation effectiveness in wealth management.

Hidden concerns beneath the halo: asset management revenue is cut in half, and two subsidiaries become a “drag”

Looking across Chuangchuang Securities’ performance across different business lines over the years, the most surprising aspect in 2025 is its asset management business—an area where it has traditionally had advantages—yet its 2025 revenue was nearly cut in half.

In 2024, Chuangchuang Securities’ asset management business revenue was 909 million yuan, up 62.67%, contributing more than one-third of operating revenue.

However, in 2025, its asset management business revenue was only 477 million yuan, down 47.55% year over year. Driven down by the decline in net income from asset management business, Chuangchuang Securities’ 2025 net fee and commission income decreased by 388 million yuan compared with 2024, down 28.55% year over year.

So what caused the severe slide in asset management business revenue? Chuangchuang Securities attributes it to “the impact of bond market conditions,” saying that excess performance compensation for the company’s asset management products declined, leading to a pullback in business revenue.

Chuangchuang Securities’ asset management business consists of three parts: the company’s own asset management business, the wholly owned private investment fund business of its subsidiary Zhengdesheng, and the public fund business of the China Post Chuangye Fund, in which it holds an equity stake. And as a subsidiary engaged in private investment fund business for Chuangchuang Securities, Zhengdesheng has continued to post losses over the past two years.

According to Chuangchuang Securities’ annual report, Zhengdesheng’s net profit loss in 2024 was 31.1296 million yuan, and its operating revenue was also negative, at only -6.8477 million yuan; both revenue and profit fell year over year.

In 2025, Zhengdesheng’s operating revenue turned positive to 6.3216 million yuan, but net profit still remained in loss, with a loss of 19.0857 million yuan. Although the loss narrowed compared with 2024, the loss magnitude is still not small.

In the first three quarters of 2024, affected by sharp market volatility, the private placement industry’s overall performance and fund issuance “entered a winter period.” In full-year 2024, futures and derivatives strategy performance was poor, and pure bond strategies also performed poorly. As a result, the private placement industry’s overall revenue and profits were weak that year, and it was not uncommon for net profit to be in loss.

However, after the 924 market rally in 2024, as the stock market gradually warmed up, the private placement fund market also regained some heat. According to data from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC), as of the end of December 2025, the scale of private placement funds reached 2.215 trillion yuan, setting a historical high; among that, the scale of private securities investment funds was 708 billion yuan. As of the end of November 2025, average returns for private placements at the 10 billion yuan level were close to 30%, and the share of institutions with positive returns exceeded 97%. Against this backdrop, the loss of nearly 20 million yuan at Chuangchuang Securities’ private placement subsidiary in 2025 in fact reflects weaker performance.

In addition to the continued losses of its private placement subsidiary, Chuangchuang Securities’ futures subsidiary—Beijing Futures—also dragged down results. In 2024, Beijing Futures’ revenue and profit both declined, but net profit was still 1.0985 million yuan. In 2025, however, its net profit turned into a loss, with a loss scale of 10.3604 million yuan.

From the perspective of the futures industry as a whole, after a sluggish 2024, 2025 saw a clear rebound in performance. According to statistics on the overall operating conditions of futures companies by month in 2025 published by the China Futures Industry Association, for full-year 2025, futures companies cumulatively achieved operating revenue of 42.015 billion yuan, above the 2024 level (41.293 billion yuan), representing a year-over-year increase of 1.7%. Cumulatively net profit was 11 billion yuan, up about 16% year over year. Under these circumstances, Chuangchuang Securities’ futures subsidiary saw both operating revenue and net profit decline in 2025, and net profit losses exceeded 10 million yuan—worth reflection.

(Author: Cui Wenjing; Editor: Jiang Shiqiang, Zhu Yimin)

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