The first annual report after acquiring Guorong Securities is out: Western Securities' revenue in 2025 will not increase but decrease.

Questioning AI · Compared to peers, why are the synergistic effects of Western Securities appearing more slowly?

Reporter Cai Yuekun

On April 1st, Western Securities (002673.SZ) released its first annual financial report after acquiring Guorong Securities. Data shows that Western Securities is projected to achieve operating revenue of 5.99B yuan in 2025, a decrease of 10.84% year-on-year; but net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company is 1.75B yuan, a growth of 24.97%; basic earnings per share are 0.39 yuan/share, an increase of 25.13%.

From the perspective of main business revenue, Western Securities’ net income from commissions and brokerage fees is 2.42B yuan, up 34.98% year-on-year, mainly due to increased net income from securities brokerage and investment banking businesses; investment income is 2.75 billion yuan, up 24.93% year-on-year, mainly due to increased gains from disposal of financial instruments; business management fees are 316M yuan, up 10.51%, mainly due to the acquisition of Guorong Securities.

In contrast, fair value change gains are -3.16 billion yuan, down 208.21% year-on-year, mainly due to changes in the fair value of trading financial assets.

Additionally, the net cash flow from operating activities in 2025 is 2.22B yuan, a decrease of 81.64% year-on-year. Western Securities stated that during the reporting period, the net cash flow from operating activities differed from the net profit for the year, mainly due to the combined effects of changes in the scale of brokerage client margins, repurchase and resale businesses, buying and selling financial assets, lending out funds, and borrowing funds.

2025 is a critical year for Western Securities’ capital operations. On August 14, 2025, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved Western Securities’s qualification to become a major shareholder of Guorong Securities. On September 11, 2025, Guorong Securities officially became the controlling shareholder of Guorong Securities, holding 64.60% of the total shares.

Contrasting sharply with Western Securities’ “profit growth without revenue growth,” another end of the top brokerage mergers and acquisitions in 2025 shows more robust synergistic effects.

On March 30th, Guolian Minsheng (1456.HK) released its first full-year operating report after restructuring, with comprehensive synergistic effects fully evident. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 7.67B yuan, a significant increase of 185.99% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent was 2.01B yuan, a surge of 405.49%, setting new records for both revenue and net profit.

On March 29th, Guotai Haitong (601211.SH) released its 2025 annual report, with performance achieving leapfrog growth. The company’s full-year operating revenue was 63.11B yuan, up 87.40%; net profit attributable to the parent was 27.81B yuan, up 113.52%. This performance increase mainly resulted from the completion of the absorption and merger of Haitong Securities in 2025.

Regarding the strategic value of Western Securities’ acquisition of Guorong Securities, an industry insider analyzed that Guorong Securities has differentiated competitive advantages in specific areas: first, it has accumulated rich business resources and project experience in the New Third Board and Beijing Stock Exchange investment banking projects; second, it has a solid market layout in North China. These advantages precisely fill the gaps in Western Securities’ regional coverage and niche business areas, and in the long term, are expected to form complementary synergistic effects.

As of December 31, 2025, Western Securities had a total of 98 securities business departments nationwide, with specific distribution and establishment details as follows (in addition, by the end of 2025, Guorong Securities had 17 branches and 67 securities business departments nationwide).

Furthermore, Western Securities also owns five wholly-owned or controlling subsidiaries: Western Futures, Western Advantage Capital, Western Securities Investment, Western Gains Fund, and Guorong Securities.

Western Securities stated that currently, competition in the securities industry remains homogeneous, with increasing business concentration, rapid digital management reforms, and a progressively完善监管体系. The advantages of leading brokerages in asset scale, market share, brand effect, technological reserves, and talent teams are becoming more prominent, while the pressure and difficulty for small and medium-sized brokerages to catch up are increasing.

“New era, new circumstances, and new development requirements are driving securities companies toward a path of value competition. The systematic提升 of functional roles will lead the industry’s future. The strategic direction of building strong financial institutions through horizontal integration is underway. The ‘big and strong’ and ‘small and beautiful’ models will coexist, giving the industry a new connotation of excellence. Accelerating the deep application of AI large models and other intelligent technologies has become a new era exploration for high-quality industry development,” Western Securities said.

On April 1st, the Shaanxi branch of the People’s Bank of China published an administrative penalty decision notice showing that Western Securities was fined 460k yuan for violating anti-money laundering management regulations.