CITIC Securities has welcomed its fourth-generation leader. On September 22, CITIC Securities issued an internal notice: Zou Yingguang, the company's deputy party secretary and general manager, will take on the role of party secretary, while the current party secretary and chairman Zhang Youjun will step down from his current position.

According to multiple media reports including 21st Century Business Herald, in the governance practices of state-owned financial institutions, a change in the party secretary is typically seen as a necessary precursor to a change in the chairman. CITIC Group conducted an internal review and public announcement of Zou Yingguang's relevant appointment as early as the first ten days of September. An even earlier signal appeared on September 30, 2025, when China AMC, a core controlled subsidiary of CITIC Securities, announced a leadership change: then-chairman Zhang Youjun stepped down due to work requirements, and Zou Yingguang, then general manager of CITIC Securities, took over. At that time, the market viewed this handover as a prelude to a leadership change at CITIC Securities.

A 31-year veteran Zhang Youjun steps down as chairman, while number-two Zou Yingguang becomes party secretary

Zhang Youjun was born in 1965 and is 61 this year; this retirement is due to reaching retirement age. He was a founding member who joined CITIC Securities when it was established in 1995. He served as assistant manager, deputy general manager, general manager, and chairman of CITIC Securities; he also held key positions in multiple core companies under the CITIC system, including general manager and chairman of CITIC Construction Investment, and chairman of CITIC Securities International and China AMC. In January 2016, Zhang Youjun became an executive director and chairman of CITIC Securities, helming this leading brokerage for more than ten and a half years.

He did not inherit an easy situation. During the abnormal fluctuations in the A-share market in 2015, several executive committee members and department heads of CITIC Securities were investigated, and the original senior management team was almost completely dismantled. Zhang Youjun became the company's deputy party secretary in November 2015 and formally took over in January 2016, with the core task of stabilizing the ship. At the end of 2015 when he took over, the company's total assets were 597.439 billion yuan, operating revenue was 38.002 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 10.365 billion yuan. By the end of 2025, CITIC Securities' total assets reached 2.08 trillion yuan, becoming the first domestic brokerage with assets exceeding 2 trillion yuan. As of the end of the first half of 2026, the company's total assets rose to 2.47 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.88 trillion yuan compared with the end of 2015 when he took office; operating revenue at the end of 2025 was 74.854 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders broke through the 30 billion yuan mark for the first time, reaching 30.076 billion yuan.

During his tenure, the most strategically significant achievement was internationalization. At present, CITIC Securities' business network covers 13 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas, and more than 60 major financial markets. It is the Chinese brokerage with the largest number of local branches, sales networks, and clearing and settlement infrastructure in the Belt and Road region. In 2025, CITIC Securities' overseas operating revenue was 15.519 billion yuan, up 41.75% year on year, and its share of total revenue rose from 17.2% to 20.73%. This was the first time a leading Chinese brokerage's overseas revenue share exceeded 20%.

Zou Yingguang, who succeeds Zhang Youjun as party secretary, was born in December 1970 and is 56 this year. He previously earned a bachelor's degree in medicine from Capital Medical University, worked as a surgeon at Xuanwu Hospital, and later obtained a master's degree in economics from Central University of Finance and Economics and an EMBA from CEIBS. From August 1998 to December 2005, Zou Yingguang worked at Huaxia Securities' Beijing Haidian South Road branch as institutional client department manager and senior business director in the bond business department. From December 2005 to March 2017, he served at CITIC Construction Investment Securities as assistant general manager of the bond business department, administrative head of the fixed income department, and member of the executive committee, during which he turned the company's fixed income business into a flagship line. From March 2017 to October 2023, he served as administrative head of the fixed income department, executive committee member, and party committee member at CITIC Securities. From October 2023 to November 2024, he returned to CITIC Construction Investment as party committee member, executive director, executive committee member, and chief financial officer, rounding out his group-level financial coordination capabilities. From November 2024 to now, Zou Yingguang has served as general manager of CITIC Securities, and since September 2025 he has also served as chairman of China AMC. On September 22, 2026, the company issued an internal notice stating that Zou Yingguang would become the company's party secretary.

Earlier, on September 4, at the interim results joint press conference where CITIC Limited and its listed companies entered the Shanghai Stock Exchange roadshow hall for the first time, Zou Yingguang, in his first appearance as the head of the core operating team, laid out the company's strategy, proposing three core measures: improve quality and efficiency, strengthen competitiveness, and expand internationally. He also disclosed that the contribution share of international business revenue in the first half of 2026 rose to 23.72% from 20.73% at the end of 2025, an increase of about 3 percentage points in half a year. Under Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards, CITIC Securities International achieved operating revenue of 2.323 billion US dollars, up 56% year on year, and net profit of 830 million US dollars, up 114% year on year, with operating performance reaching a record high for the same period in history. Most critically, profitability efficiency was strong: in the first half, the gross margin of the international business was 74.46%, and both revenue growth and profit returns were higher than domestic operations. At the same time, profit growth in the international business significantly outpaced revenue growth in the first half, meaning overseas operations have moved from the license-layout phase into a profit-contribution phase.

This handover happened right after CITIC Securities delivered its best-ever interim report, and also right at the moment when its number-one position by scale had just changed hands.

Net profit sits firmly on the brokerage throne for 20 years, but asset scale was overtaken by Guotai Haitong

In the first half, CITIC Securities achieved operating revenue of 49.692 billion yuan, up 50% year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 23.343 billion yuan, up 69.6% year on year, continuing to sit firmly on the throne of number-one brokerage by performance. Wind data show that since CITIC Securities surpassed China International Capital Corporation to become number one in brokerage net profit in 2006, it has maintained that position. However, on a half-year basis, in the first half of 2025 Guotai Haitong topped the list with net profit of 15.737 billion yuan, breaking CITIC Securities' record of ranking first in interim net profit continuously since 2006. In the interim period of 2026, CITIC Securities reclaimed the number-one seat with net profit of 23.343 billion yuan, up 69.6% year on year, higher than Guotai Haitong Securities' 20.26 billion yuan.

The reason behind Guotai Haitong Securities' interim net profit championship in the first half of 2025 included a huge non-recurring gain of 8.827 billion yuan in negative goodwill from the absorption and merger of Haitong Securities, which was included in non-operating income. After excluding that, its non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders was only 7.229 billion yuan, far below CITIC Securities' interim non-GAAP level. In other words, in terms of core business profitability, CITIC Securities did not truly lose in the first half of 2025. But the number-one position by scale is no longer in CITIC Securities' hands. In the first half, the company's total assets were 2.47 trillion yuan, up 21.7% year on year, while Guotai Haitong Securities overtook CITIC Securities with total assets of 2.5 trillion yuan.

CITIC Securities mainly holds three trump cards: capital return efficiency, asset management and public funds, and internationalization. The last one is currently the hardest moat to replicate. CITIC Securities' weighted ROE was 7.81%, while Guotai Haitong Securities' was 6.12%, with the former leading the latter by 1.69 percentage points. On a non-GAAP net profit basis, CITIC Securities was 23.61 billion yuan and Guotai Haitong Securities was 19.51 billion yuan, a gap of 4.1 billion yuan. CITIC Securities' net asset management income was 7.182 billion yuan, while Guotai Haitong's investment management segment revenue was 4.9 billion yuan. As of the end of June, CITIC Securities' compliant asset management scale was 1.98 trillion yuan, up 12.13% from the end of the previous year; its market share in private asset management business was 14.37%; China AMC's public fund management scale was 1.91 trillion yuan. In the first half, this public fund company's revenue was 5.708 billion yuan, up 34.05% year on year, and net profit was 1.413 billion yuan, up 25.82% year on year. CITIC Securities' overseas revenue share in the first half was 23.72%, while Guotai Haitong Securities' revenue share was 11.54%, nearly a two-fold gap.

This is not a capability that can be made up in the short term through mergers; rather, it is the accumulation of more than ten years of licenses, networks, clearing infrastructure, and localized teams. By contrast, Guotai Haitong Securities' overseas segment still carries the historical burden of Haitong International. From 2022 to 2024, Haitong International accumulated losses of more than 17 billion Hong Kong dollars, and in full-year 2025 it still lost 3.268 billion Hong Kong dollars. As of the end of June 2026, Haitong International Holdings' net assets were negative 16.252 billion Hong Kong dollars, with the shortfall further widening from the same period a year earlier.

Of course, Guotai Haitong also has three strengths: its customer and retail foundation, the number of margin financing and investment banking deals completed, and the explosive growth of institutional and trading businesses. Guotai Haitong has 40.89 million domestic customers, the average monthly active users of Junhong APP and Tongcai APP reached 16.73 million, its stock and fund trading market share was 9.15%, and it had 6,332 registered investment advisers, all ranking among the top in the industry. By comparison, CITIC Securities has accumulated more than 18 million customers, less than half of Guotai Haitong Securities' customer count. Guotai Haitong Securities' margin financing and securities lending balance was 296.111 billion yuan, firmly ranking first in the industry. In investment banking, in the first half Guotai Haitong Securities led 14 IPO main underwritings and had 57 projects under review at period-end, both ranking first in the industry. Its institutional and trading business revenue was 22.176 billion yuan, up 223.24% year on year, contributing 47.02%, among which its alternative investment subsidiary earned a net profit of 6.5 billion yuan in the first half, contributing more than 32% of net profit.

Faced with Guotai Haitong's advantages and close pressure, how to defend the number-one position is the main challenge for the new leader.

The investment banking position remains irreplaceable

CITIC Securities' investment banking business has long held an irreplaceable position. In 2025, CITIC Securities completed 72 A-share main underwriting projects, with a main underwriting scale of 270.646 billion yuan and a market share of 24.36%, ranking first in the entire market. It continued to rank first in the industry across multiple businesses including equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, and bond underwriting, and is an investment bank capable of steadily and consistently handling IPO deals for science and technology unicorns worth tens of billions or even hundreds of billions. In the first half, the company completed 40 A-share main underwriting projects, with an underwriting scale of 146.754 billion yuan and a market share of 30.56%, continuing to rank first in the market.

Since the implementation of the registration-based system on the STAR Market, CITIC Securities has continued to bet on AI computing power, chips, and robotics tracks, as well as Hong Kong's 18C autonomous driving and embodied intelligence sectors. It has completed listing guidance for at least 10 technology companies, including Moore Threads, Unitree Robotics, Insta360, Ruili Kemi, Lianxun Instruments, and Shenghe Jingwei, and has accumulated rich experience. The company sponsored the listing of Enflame Technology on September 11, raising more than 6 billion yuan. It is a representative domestic AI training chip company, and the sponsor and underwriting fee was 264 million yuan. On August 19, 2026, Unitree Robotics (688836.SH), the first listed humanoid robot company, landed on the STAR Market at an issue price of 150.8 yuan per share, issuing 40.4464 million shares and raising a total of about 6.099 billion yuan. On its first day of listing, the stock opened and once surged to 1,100 yuan per share, closing at 845 yuan per share, up 463% from the issue price. According to Unitree Robotics' prospectus, the sponsorship fee, including continuous supervision fee, and underwriting fee totaled about 140 million yuan. Zhenbao Technology, listed on June 24, 2026, is a core components company for pan-semiconductor equipment. Its core business is providing parts involved in process reactions within vacuum chambers of manufacturing equipment for integrated circuit and display panel industry customers, as well as other surface treatment solutions. It is one of the few domestic companies to achieve multi-category supply and large-scale mass production of non-metal components for advanced integrated circuit process and high-voltage display panel manufacturing equipment. Zhenbao Technology's issue price was 44.56 yuan, raising 1.73 billion yuan. On its first day of listing, the stock rose more than 12 times, and CITIC Securities earned 96.03 million yuan in underwriting fees. On April 24, Lianxun Instruments officially landed on the STAR Market with an issue price of 81.88 yuan. CITIC Securities was its sole sponsor and sole lead underwriter, taking all of the 149.8 million yuan underwriting fee. In the first half, CITIC Securities completed 44 overseas equity projects, with an underwriting scale of 4.218 billion US dollars calculated on the basis of evenly distributing the total issuance scale among all bookrunners, including 31 Hong Kong market IPO projects and 4.105 billion US dollars in Hong Kong market equity financing underwriting scale. It also completed Malaysia's two largest IPO projects of the year, with an underwriting scale of 114 million US dollars.

What Zou Yingguang takes over is not just a financial giant with total assets of nearly 2.5 trillion yuan. Facing Guotai Haitong's close pressure and the profound reshaping of the industry landscape, whether this fourth-generation leader can keep CITIC Securities in the number-one position on the path of improving quality and efficiency, strengthening competitiveness, and expanding internationally is something the market is watching closely.