Net profit of 13.7 billion! GF Securities expects high growth in 2025, with overseas business becoming a key growth driver

Presented | China Visitor Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

On March 30, 2025, GF Securities released its 2025 annual report. For the full year, it recorded operating revenue of 35.493 billion yuan, and attributable net profit of 13.702 billion yuan. Year over year, they increased by 34.33% and 42.18%, respectively. The pace of performance growth has reached a new high. With the four business segments working in concert, overseas business and wealth management transformation have become the company’s “two engines” for growth. While consolidating its leading position in the domestic market, the company is accelerating the expansion of its international footprint, serving national strategies through high-quality development. However, behind the impressive results, issues such as relatively weak investment banking, localized pressure in asset management, and compliance and funding pressures still need to be watched closely. The path to high-quality development still requires steady progress.

In 2025, GF Securities’ four business segments advanced in parallel, achieving leapfrog growth in overall performance. Wealth management business, acting as the “stabilizer,” delivered notable transformation results. By year-end, the company’s assets under distribution of financial products exceeded 370 billion yuan, up 42.65% year over year. Assets under distribution of non-money public mutual funds remained steadily ranked 4th in the industry. Margin financing and securities lending balance reached 138.979 billion yuan, up 34.04% year over year, and market share rose to 5.47%. Its investment advisory team of more than 4,800 people remained the third-largest in the industry, laying a solid talent foundation for buyer-side investment advisory transformation. The company transformed from traditional distribution toward “research-driven, solution-oriented, asset-allocation-focused, and buyer-side investment advisory,” and its “multi-asset, multi-strategy, all-weather” allocation framework has started to show initial results, with customer service capabilities continuing to upgrade.

The moat in investment management keeps deepening, and the “twin stars” effect is becoming prominent. After excluding money-market funds, the public-fund scale of GF Fund and E Fund respectively reached 1,015.160 billion yuan and 1,817.855 billion yuan, ranking 3rd and 1st in the industry. GF Securities’ wholly owned subsidiary GF Asset Management saw asset-management fee income up 31.57% year over year, and the scale of special asset-management plans increased by 38.08%. GF Xinde, meanwhile, saw cumulative paid-in fund assets under management break through 19 billion yuan. It focuses on new productive forces areas such as artificial intelligence and biopharmaceuticals; with linkage between private and public offerings and between domestic and overseas business, it has formed a strong synergy.

Its trading and institutional business capabilities have been improving steadily. As a first-tier dealer in over-the-counter derivatives, its market-making business remains in the top echelon. Market-making business in the STAR Market and the Beijing Stock Exchange has been formally implemented. For the full year, it issued and traded 110,100 private products, with a scale of 1.06 trillion yuan. Custody and outsourcing services delivered standout performance: the custody scale of non-money public funds ranked 4th in the industry. GF Qianhe focuses on alternative investments in areas such as hard technology and AI+, and has accumulated 342 projects, while the institutional service ecosystem continues to improve.

Investment banking is advancing steadily, and the transformation to “industrial investment banking” continues to gain momentum. For domestic equity financing, it completed 8 A-share projects with lead underwritings totaling 18.793 billion yuan. For debt financing, it led the underwriting of 869 bonds, totaling 318.857 billion yuan, ranking 9th in the industry. In M&A and restructuring, it completed 2 major asset restructuring projects and 7 control-right acquisition projects, with its industrial service capabilities recognized by the market.

2025 is a key breakthrough year for GF Securities’ internationalization strategy. Overseas business moved from the “setup phase” to the “contribution phase.” The annual report shows that the company’s overseas subsidiaries’ total assets reached 117.123 billion yuan, accounting for more than 12% of the Group’s total assets. The wholly owned subsidiary GF Holdings (Hong Kong) recorded total assets of 106.844 billion yuan, up more than 70% year over year; both the scale and quality of overseas business rose in tandem.

On the business front, overseas bond and equity financing operate as a two-wheel drive. In the full year, it completed 59 China-related overseas bond issuances, with underwriting proceeds of HKD 87.097 billion. It also completed 23 overseas equity financing projects, with an issuance scale of HKD 106.775 billion. In Hong Kong’s equity financing, China-related securities firms ranked 5th, effectively helping Chinese companies “go global.” The cross-border business achieved new breakthroughs. The company obtained “Northbound Link” business qualification for the first time, with cross-border wealth management connection configuration scale exceeding 970 million yuan. GF Futures (Singapore) was officially established; its international business extended from Hong Kong to Southeast Asia, and a global service system has started to take shape.

Chairman Lin Chuanhui said the company will “operationalize cross-border integration and build a global service system.” Internationalization is transforming from a strategic blueprint into contributions to performance. The accelerated push in overseas business not only opens new growth space for the company, but also aligns with the country’s “dual circulation” strategy, helping support high-level opening up of capital markets to the outside world.

While delivering strong performance growth, GF Securities actively repays shareholders and fulfills social responsibility. The 2025 profit distribution plan shows that the company intends to pay 5 yuan in cash dividends for every 10 shares, totaling 3.912 billion yuan. Combined with interim dividends of 760 million yuan, total dividends for the full year amount to 4.673 billion yuan, accounting for 34.11% of attributable net profit—allowing investors to fully share in the fruits of development. The company also implemented a share repurchase and cancellation for the first time, and was included in the MSCI China Index. Its market capitalization and investors’ sense of gain increased in parallel.

In terms of social responsibility, the company serves the issuance of green ABS and green bonds, among others. Total financing for bonds and loans combined exceeded 10 billion yuan, supporting green and low-carbon development. In implementing rural revitalization and Guangdong’s “10,000, 10,000” project (Hundred Thousand Million Project), full-year public-interest spending was 31.5572 million yuan. The GF Charity Foundation’s cumulative spending exceeded 330 million yuan. It has been included in the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainable Development Enterprise Index series for many consecutive years, practicing the political nature and the people-centered nature of financial work.

Beyond the impressive performance, GF Securities still faces multiple challenges. Investment banking remains a shortcoming. In the first three quarters of 2025, investment banking revenue was only 329 million yuan, accounting for 2.14% of total revenue—far below the industry average. It was once issued warnings due to issues with sponsor projects, and was also investigated for self-discipline due to low-price competition in bond underwriting; project reserves and professional capabilities still need improvement. Asset management faces localized pressure. In the first half of 2025, GF Asset Management incurred losses. Although it recovered to some extent over the full year, its active management capabilities and cost control still need to be strengthened.

Funding and compliance pressures cannot be overlooked. The company’s liability-to-asset ratio is 83.35%. In early 2026, new borrowings will reach regulatory red lines, increasing pressure on liquidity and capital replenishment. In addition, some business outlets were warned by regulators due to compliance issues. Unresolved lawsuits involve a relatively high amount at risk, meaning the compliance and risk-control system needs continued strengthening. Also, in the fourth quarter, attributable net profit declined slightly by 3.66% year over year on a single-quarter basis. The sustainability of performance growth faces tests from market volatility.

2026 is the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan and 5-year period” startup, as capital market reforms for investment and financing deepen and basic systems improve, bringing new opportunities for securities firms. Lin Chuanhui said GF Securities will adhere to its functional positioning, strengthen professional capabilities, and stay committed to steady progress with improvement, serving national strategies through high-quality development.

In the future, the company will continue to deepen its wealth management transformation and strengthen buyer-side investment advisory capabilities. It will accelerate overseas business deployment and improve the global service system. It will also make up for shortcomings in investment banking and asset management to enhance core competitiveness. At the same time, it will strictly observe the bottom line for compliance and risk control, balancing scale expansion with sound operations, and achieve its own high-quality development in serving the real economy and supporting industrial transformation.

Overall, GF Securities’ 2025 performance delivered strong growth, achieved overseas breakthroughs, and demonstrated social responsibility. Despite business shortcomings and operational concerns, the company is pressing forward with a proactive posture to break through. With the two engines of internationalization and wealth management continuing to gain momentum, GF Securities is expected to write an even more impressive chapter of development in the wave of high-quality growth in capital markets.