Major reshuffle in leading brokerage firms' equity stakes! Tencent and Alibaba exit, while E Fund, BlackRock, and others enter the scene.

When it comes to stock trading, just look at JIN QILIN’s analyst research reports—authoritative, professional, timely, and comprehensive—helping you uncover potential theme-driven opportunities!

With the official release of CICC’s 2025 annual report, a long-anticipated “switch in defense and offense” regarding the equity structure of this leading securities firm has finally come to a close.

Once the internet giant Tencent and Alibaba, which boldly entered as strategic investors, have in the past year continued to reduce their holdings of CICC’s H shares. Alibaba has already faded out of the top ten shareholders list. And as the technology giants exit, a new batch of institutional investors—represented by E Fund, global asset management giant BlackRock, and the sovereign wealth fund’s Brunei Investment Authority—are quietly taking the baton.

Tencent cuts its stake in CICC by more than half

According to the shareholder information disclosed in CICC’s 2025 annual report, CICC’s largest shareholder, Central Huijin Investment Ltd., has maintained relatively stable holdings, accounting for 40.11% of the total share capital. However, other shareholders saw significant changes in 2025.

As of the end of the reporting period, Tencent Holdings held 1.12 billion H shares of CICC through its wholly owned subsidiary, Tencent Mobility Limited. The number of shares has been sharply reduced, with its stake falling to 5.92% of the H-share portion and 2.33% of the total share capital.

Meanwhile, at the end of 2024, Tencent held 216 million shares of CICC, representing 11.36% of the H-share portion and 4.88% of the total share capital. It is understood that Tencent’s investment in CICC dates back to September 2017, when CICC announced it would introduce Tencent Holdings as a strategic investor. Under the share subscription agreement, Tencent subscribed to 207.5 million newly issued H shares of CICC. These represented 12.01% of CICC’s H shares after the issuance and 4.95% of the total share capital. The subscription price was HKD 13.8 per share, for a total cost of HKD 2.864 billion. At the time, this was seen as a landmark event marking the first indirect acquisition of a domestic securities license by an internet giant.

After CICC’s private placement in mid-2019, Tencent’s number of shares in the company rose to 216 million, and its shareholding as a proportion of the total share capital fell to 4.48%.

In June 2020, the two parties also established a joint venture technology company, Jinteng Technology, which mainly used data-driven operational methods to carry out targeted marketing to affluent customers and explored a new operating model that combines online and offline.

Over the years, Tencent’s stake in CICC was fairly stable. The change began in July 2025. According to data disclosed on HKEX, starting from July 25, 2025, Tencent initiated several rounds of reductions of its holdings of CICC, which also means that the nearly eight years of strategic cooperation between the two parties have gradually become distant after 2025.

Alibaba directly exits CICC’s top ten A-share shareholders

Not only Tencent has gradually faded from CICC’s position as a major shareholder; another strategic investor, Alibaba, also accelerated its exit from CICC in 2025.

According to CICC’s 2025 annual report, Alibaba Group is no longer within the scope of main shareholder equity disclosures. CICC’s 2024 annual report also disclosed that Alibaba held 203 million H shares of CICC through Des Voeux Investment Company Limited, accounting for 10.66% of the H-share portion and 4.2% of the total share capital.

It is understood that Alibaba’s investment in CICC began in February 2019. At that time, it purchased approximately 203 million H shares at HKD 15.5 per share, entering the list of the top five shareholders. In the years that followed, its holdings remained stable until it began its first reduction starting in February 2025.

At the same time, Alibaba has been gradually stepping back on the A-share front as well. By the end of 2024, Alibaba still held 13.7577 million A shares of CICC through Hangzhou Haoyue, representing a stake of 0.28%, ranking as the ninth-largest shareholder. But by the 2025 annual report, Hangzhou Haoyue is no longer among the top ten A-share shareholders of CICC.

E Fund, BlackRock, and the Brunei Investment Authority take over in succession

As the internet giants exit, a group of domestic and overseas institutional investors are increasing their deployments instead.

Data disclosed on HKEX shows that on the same day Tencent reduced its holdings on July 25, 2025, domestic public-fund heavyweight E Fund bought 7.1444 million H shares of CICC at an average price of HKD 21.44 per share, spending approximately HKD 153 million, and its stake increased from 4.76% to 5.13%. After that, E Fund continued to add holdings multiple times.

According to CICC’s 2025 annual report, E Fund held 199 million H shares of CICC, accounting for 10.46% of the H-share portion, and 4.13% of the total share capital. This is already higher than the equity stake held by Tencent.

Earlier, sources close to E Fund told Securities Times China reporters that E Fund’s increase in holdings of CICC was due to passive buying by its Hong Kong securities ETF.

Besides E Fund, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, also actively laid out its plans in 2025. Previously, data from HKEX showed that on June 12, BlackRock bought 4.2916 million H shares of CICC at an average price of HKD 16.2344 per share. After the purchase, its “good holdings” had reached 117.1189 million shares, with a stake of 6.15%.

CICC’s 2025 annual report shows that BlackRock held 121 million H shares of CICC, accounting for 6.34% of the H-share portion and 2.5% of the total share capital.

Analysts believe that BlackRock increased its positions against the trend during the window when Tencent reduced its holdings, showing its optimism about valuation of Chinese securities firms and the long-term prospects of China’s capital markets.

Worth noting is that, on the level of CICC’s A-share shareholders, there has also been a new face.

According to CICC’s 2025 annual report, the newly listed top ten shareholders include the Brunei Investment Authority, which holds about 10.32 million shares, accounting for 0.21% of the total share capital, ranking as the ninth-largest shareholder.

Market analysts point out that Tencent and Alibaba’s reductions may be driven by needs such as returning capital and focusing on strategy. As reforms in the capital markets deepen and competition in the industry intensifies, some industrial capital may choose to realize gains.

At the same time, as CICC’s performance continues to improve, it achieved operating revenue of RMB 28.481 billion for the full year of 2025, up 33.5% year over year; net profit of RMB 9.791 billion, up 71.93% year over year. As a leading securities firm, its asset allocation value is attracting more long-term capital, which has led to reshuffling in CICC’s shareholder structure.

Source: Securities Times China

Editor-in-charge: Li Dan

A massive flow of information and precise analysis—only on the Sina Finance APP