China’s CICC eyes Middle East, South-east Asia in global push

[NEW YORK] China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of the nation’s largest brokerages, is seeking to tap the growing demand for cross-border financial services in the Persian Gulf and South-east Asia as the firm pushes its global expansion.

Beijing-based CICC is gearing up to open a new branch in Dubai to target sovereign wealth funds and conglomerates in the Gulf region, according to Wang Hanfeng, deputy president for CICC International. It’s also exploring more South-east Asian markets, after having opened a representative office in Vietnam last year and a Singapore unit in 2008.

“If we don’t connect with the world and just focus our efforts on the domestic market, our role and influence will wane,” Wang said. “We aim to form a bridge for Chinese firms to go abroad and overseas firms to invest in China.”

The company will now also prioritise deploying resources to areas including Latin America, central Asia as well as Japan and South Korea to better support China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Wang said.

Since the inception of the initiative in 2013, China has managed to extend its global influence through the development programme that mainly funds infrastructure for member countries. Beijing is now actively seeking closer ties with trade partners in regions including South-east Asia as it braces for growing tensions with US President Donald Trump’s US administration.

The overseas expansion of Chinese brokerages also dovetails with the nation’s strategy for its firms to “go global” and a drive to cultivate two to three top-class Chinese investment banks by 2035.

The push comes amid increasing tension with the US over tariffs and as China’s economy has struggled to regain traction. The firm’s profit dropped 7.5 per cent in 2024 from a year earlier as brokerage commissions and investment banking revenue slid. Underwriting and sponsoring fees from equity financing dropped almost 37 per cent as initial public offerings and follow-on share sales in China plummeted.

CICC aims to participate in the energy transition and infrastructure construction drive in the Gulf region by providing structured financing and services, according to Wang. It will cater to increasing demand from both Chinese firms and their counterparts in that region for cross-border investment, share offerings, as well as mergers and acquisitions, he said. There’s “great synergy” between the two sides in areas including green energy, he said.

The firm expects stronger ties and more cooperation between companies in China and South-east Asia as the latter seeks to upgrade the new energy, high technology and consumption sectors. CICC can play to its strength by facilitating two-way financing and investment services, said Wang.

Peer CGS International, a unit of China Galaxy Securities, is also looking to help boost cross-border investments by Chinese and South-east Asian firms amid optimism over stronger ties between the two sides given the US tariffs, CEO Carol Fong told Bloomberg Television in early April.

CICC will add more headcount in both the Gulf region and South-east Asia to aid its local expansion, Wang said, without disclosing specific targets.

The company, a leading underwriter and sponsor for initial public offerings in Hong Kong, also expects listing activities in the city to pick up in 2025 from the past few years with more big deals above US$1 billion. The benchmark Hang Seng Index has gained 9.5 per cent this year, ranking among the best-performing major indexes globally.

CICC’s global operations began as early as 1997 when it set up a Hong Kong unit, the predecessor of CICC International. Its global business operations have over the years expanded to amass HK$194.4 billion (S$32.8 billion) in assets as at end-2024, with its net profit contributing to about 50 per cent of the group’s total last year. BLOOMBERG