China Weighs Merging Its Biggest Brokers to Take on Wall Street
- Policy makers looking at merging brokers Citic and CSC
- Wall Street now allowed to take full control in China
A pedestrian walks past a Citic Securities Co. branch in Shanghai.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
China has started the process of potentially merging its two biggest brokerage firms to create a company that can better compete with the global investment banks as the country opens up its financial markets, according to people familiar with the matter.
Citic Securities Co. and CSC Financial Co., along with their government shareholders Citic Group and Central Huijin Investment Ltd., have recently started due diligence and a feasibility study on how to structure the deal, according to the people, who asked not be named discussing private matters. Regulators, including China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, are briefed in the process, said the people.