Cathay Pacific Haitong: Investment and financing rebalancing continues to gradually pick up equity financing

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Cathay Pacific Haitong Securities released a research report saying that on October 27, Chairman Wu Qing of the Securities Regulatory Commission delivered a keynote speech at the 2025 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting, discussing “giving full play to the leading role in comprehensive investment and financing reforms to promote the high-quality development of the “15th Five-Year Plan” capital market. It proposes key measures such as initiating GEM reform and optimizing the Beijing Stock Exchange system, and introducing a refinancing reserve issuance system.

Cathay Pacific Haitong expects investment and financing rebalancing to enter a new stage, and leading brokerage firms with more advantages in corporate customer resources, professional service capabilities, and cross-border service capabilities are expected to continue to benefit.

Cathay Pacific Haitong's main views are as follows:

A shares: Equity financing is gradually picking up, and bond underwriting continues to grow. 1) IPO: According to the release date statistics, 12 A-shares were initially listed in November, an increase of 1 company was raised over the previous month, raising a total of 20.5 billion yuan; 2) Refinancing: According to statistics on the issue date, the monthly refinancing scale was 12 billion yuan. Since the beginning of the year, the scale of A-share IPOs was +95% year over year, and the scale of refinancing was +363% (+70% after excluding fixed increases from major banks), and overall improvements continued; 3) M&A and restructuring: Driven by the industry's own needs, M&A demand remained strong. The total number of major restructuring events of listed companies disclosed since the beginning of the year reached 157, including 11 in November; 4) Bond issuance: The cumulative underwriting scale increased year-on-year, with core bonds (corporate bonds+corporate bonds+convertible bonds) issued at 398.3 billion yuan since the beginning of November The cumulative year-on-year growth rate was +13%.

Hong Kong stocks: Equity financing continues to be active. Since the second half of '24, Hong Kong stock trading activity has increased dramatically, and improvements in market liquidity have boosted a sharp recovery in Hong Kong stock IPOs and refinancing. Since the beginning of the year, the IPOs for Hong Kong stocks were HK$259.4 billion, up 228% year on year; the refinancing scale was HK$315.6 billion, up 251% year over year. Earlier, the Securities Regulatory Commission held a plenary session on the cross-departmental coordination working mechanism for overseas listing filing management, and proposed to make better use of the coordination mechanism to provide a more transparent, efficient, and predictable regulatory environment for overseas listings of enterprises. It is expected that the convenience of Hong Kong stock financing will be further improved.

In the new stage of investment and financing rebalancing, reform dividends will continue to be released, benefiting many businesses such as brokerage investment banks. On October 27, Chairman Wu Qing of the Securities Regulatory Commission delivered a keynote speech at the 2025 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting, discussing “giving full play to the leading role of comprehensive investment and financing reforms to promote the high-quality development of the 15th Five-Year Plan capital market”. Among them, key measures such as initiating GEM reform and optimizing the Beijing Stock Exchange system and proposing to introduce a refinancing reserve issuance system are proposed. It is expected that the rebalancing of investment and financing will enter a new stage.

Investment advice: On a marginal basis, the pace of A-share financing has improved marginally. Hong Kong stocks continue to be active and have a significant year-on-year boost. Leading brokerage firms with more advantages in corporate customer resources, professional service capabilities, and cross-border service capabilities are expected to continue to maintain a leading position in the evolution of the investment banking business ecosystem.

Risk warning: The capital market fluctuates greatly; the pace of IPOs has been drastically tightened.