CITIC Securities' teams up with China Renaissance to serve Internet firms

[SHANGHAI] CITIC Securities Co Ltd , China's biggest brokerage, will partner with boutique investment bank China Renaissance to provide M&A, restructuring and initial public offering-related services for Internet companies.

Well-connected local firms like China Renaissance are seeing a boom as entrepreneur-driven private businesses, particularly in the technology sector, overtake state-owned companies to drive investment banking revenues in China.

While CITIC has seen profits soar on the back of a sharp rally in the nation's stock markets, it and other Chinese brokerages are keen to develop new revenue sources as Beijing's plans to allow commercial banks and other finance firms to own brokerage licences will increase competition.

A new team to be set up by CITIC Securities and China Renaissance will also handle OTC and A-share listings as well as develop financial products, the companies said in a statement late on Wednesday.

China Renaissance worked on US$4.4 billion worth of Chinese domestic M&A deals last year. This year, it brokered the merger of China's two leading taxi-hailing app companies, Didi and Kuaidi Dache to create a $6 billion company.

REUTERS