Private firms top bank-fee generators in China

Hong Kong

PRIVATE firms have overtaken state-owned companies this year for the first time as the biggest drivers of investment banking revenues in China - a sign of how Beijing's reforms are transforming private capital's role in the world's second-largest economy.

Nimble and boasting efficient management, these private firms are taking advantage of the Internet industry boom and business expansion ambitions to take a bigger share of the deal activity compared with state-owned enterprises (SOEs).