Exclusive | Signs of a Recovery in Equity Financing? CITIC Securities Plans to Increase ECM Team Personnel

The primary market is showing more signs of recovery.

Wall Street Journal · Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01) has learned exclusively that CITIC Securities is planning to reallocate personnel from other teams due to a shortage of staff in its ECM (Equity Capital Markets) team.

The ECM team is primarily responsible for the issuance and underwriting of stocks.

A person close to CITIC Securities told Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01): "The ECM team is currently understaffed and is reallocating people from various groups. Previously, many ECM personnel were reassigned to work on bonds, but now many have been brought back."

Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01) has sought to verify the authenticity of this information with CITIC Securities, but has not received a response as of the time of publication.

This individual also indicated to Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01) that this may also be related to the previous optimization of personnel in the ECM team.

From the perspective of peers, CITIC Securities' move may still be somewhat unique.

A person close to Huatai Securities told Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01): "There hasn't been a significant adjustment to personnel previously, so the ECM team hasn't changed much."

As of the end of June 2024, Huatai Securities had a total of 16,600 employees, which is the same as the same period in 2023.

CITIC Securities' plan to increase personnel in the ECM team may also indicate that the equity financing market is beginning to warm up.

According to incomplete statistics from Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01), since 2025, five IPO projects, including Nantong Lianya Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., have been restarted for guidance or are planning to rush for IPOs on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

At the same time, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange plan to review the listing applications of one company each on March 14. This marks the first time since November of last year that the Shanghai and Shenzhen IPO market has seen two companies reviewed in one week.

Refinancing has also seen some easing. Recently, innovative pharmaceutical company Baillie Tianheng (688506.SH) announced a private placement of no more than 3.9 billion yuan.

"Currently, refinancing requires preliminary communication, especially large-scale refinancing is not easy, so there are still some positive signals," a person from an investment bank in Guangdong told Trade Wind (ID: TradeWind01).

Moreover, several A-share companies are heading to the Hong Kong stock market.

For example, China's largest private gold producer, Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining Co., Ltd. (6693.HK), has recently listed on the Hong Kong stock market, becoming the third "A+H" gold stock after Zijin Mining (2899.HK) and Shandong Gold (1787.HK).

This may bring more performance growth to investment banks