Hong Kong Stock IPO Confidence Doubles? First Capital Securities to Deliver the Best Performance in History by 2025

How does the strategic iteration of Founder Securities enhance the attractiveness of Hong Kong stock IPOs?

Produced by | Zhongfang Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

On March 20, Founder Securities (601136.SH) released its first complete annual report since starting the Hong Kong stock IPO process, showcasing record highs in revenue, net profit, and asset scale. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 2.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%; net profit attributable to shareholders reached 1.06 billion yuan, up 7.3%; and total assets surpassed 50 billion yuan, demonstrating both operational resilience and growth momentum, laying a solid foundation for the Hong Kong stock IPO hearings and issuance. Despite a phase of structural differentiation in its business, and short-term pressure on asset management income, the company’s strategic iteration is clear, core capabilities are solid, and regional and resource advantages are prominent, with a clear long-term development path and continuously improving market recognition.

In 2025, as capital market volatility and industry competition intensified, Founder Securities achieved simultaneous growth in scale and efficiency through prudent operations and precise layouts. The net profit attributable to shareholders and the net profit after deducting non-recurring items grew by 7.3% and 5.0%, respectively, with profitability quality steadily improving; fully diluted earnings per share were 0.3865 yuan, and shareholder returns remained stable. In terms of single quarters, the net profit attributable to shareholders in the fourth quarter still achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.5%, demonstrating its ability to withstand risks across cycles.

As a regional leading brokerage controlled by the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Founder Securities relies on shareholders such as Capital Entrepreneurship Group, Beijing Investment Company, and Beijing Energy Group, collectively holding about 82%, providing solid capital strength and credit backing. By the end of 2025, asset scale reached a new level, with capital adequacy and business expansion space further opened up, providing ample support for self-operated, asset management, and wealth management businesses, and laying a capital foundation for fundraising and internationalization in Hong Kong stock IPOs.

In comparison to the industry, under the backdrop of increasing differentiation in the brokerage sector, Founder Securities has achieved “accelerated growth of small and medium-sized brokerages” with steady revenue and net profit growth for consecutive years, demonstrating greater profitability stability than the industry average, fully reflecting the compliance foundation and operational determination of state-controlled brokerages.

In 2025, the company’s various business lines showed differentiation; investment-related businesses exploded in growth, becoming the core engine, while wealth management steadily improved in quality, and asset management faced short-term pressure but continued to expand in scale, with significant results from structural optimization and strategic focus.

Investment-related businesses led the way, achieving annual revenue of 1.554 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.83%, becoming the primary pillar of performance growth. The company adheres to a non-directional and multi-strategy balanced approach, utilizing quantitative hedging, high dividend, and fixed income enhancement strategies to free itself from dependence on market trends, pursuing stable absolute returns, and elevating its self-investment capabilities to a new level. Fixed income investment trading has grown rapidly for five consecutive years, equity investment risk control is in place, and alternative investments have precisely grasped opportunities in the New Third Board and Beijing Stock Exchange, significantly reducing portfolio volatility and enhancing profit sustainability.

The digital transformation of wealth management business has accelerated, with annual revenue of 497 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.33%, becoming the second growth curve. The company leverages the “Tomato Wealth APP” to promote the construction of a one-stop comprehensive financial service platform, with the total number of customers exceeding 870,000 and nearly 80,000 new accounts opened during the year; APP registered users and monthly active users grew by 18.76% and 31.37%, respectively, highlighting the effectiveness of digital customer acquisition and engagement. The scale of the investment advisory business exploded to 43.699 billion yuan, nearly tripling year-on-year, with significant results from the transformation from channel brokerage to asset allocation, continuously enhancing client asset retention and appreciation capabilities.

The investment banking business serves as a strategic support, achieving annual revenue of 189 million yuan. Although it saw a slight decline due to market conditions and project pacing, steady breakthroughs were made in sub-sectors such as bond underwriting and asset securitization, continuously deepening local enterprise financing services by relying on regional resources in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, accumulating projects and client reserves for subsequent business volume expansion.

The asset management business, a long-term distinctive strength of Founder Securities, faced a year-on-year revenue decline of 47.55% in 2025 due to bond market volatility, high bases, and reduced performance fees; however, scale continued to expand, brand recognition improved, and the transformation direction remained firm, with its core leading position unchanged.

By the end of 2025, the net value scale of the company’s asset management products reached 171.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.93%, with scale steadily climbing for three consecutive years, growing from 107.3 billion yuan at the end of 2022 to nearly 180 billion yuan by the end of 2025, leading the industry in compound growth rate. The scale of the investment advisory business doubled over three years, with the proportion of active management continuously increasing and product structure continuously optimizing. The company won the prestigious award for “2025 Annual Five-Year Bull Market Broker Collective Asset Manager,” with its research and investment capabilities and product performance recognized by authorities, further strengthening brand barriers.

On the industry level, in 2025, brokerage asset management faced multiple pressures from public fund transformation, fee reform, and inter-institutional competition, with stage-specific revenue declines being a common issue. Founder Securities expanded its scale and optimized its structure against the trend, developing collective asset management and single asset management in a coordinated manner, maintaining stable rhythms in the active management transformation, and laying a scale foundation for subsequent income recovery and profitability rebound. With the establishment of asset management subsidiaries, improvement of product lines, and upgrades in research and investment capabilities, the asset management business is expected to return to a growth track, continuing to play a strategic leading role.

In 2025, Founder Securities made significant optimizations to its development strategy, upgrading from “asset management as the core driver, two wings supporting, investment balance driving” to “leading with asset management, using investment-related businesses as the engine and foundation, with investment banking and wealth management as support,” with clearer strategic logic and closer business collaboration, adapting to industry development trends and the company’s growth stage.

This strategic adjustment highlights the “engine and foundation” status of investment businesses, strengthening the stable contribution of self-operated investments to profitability; simultaneously, it adheres to asset management leadership while addressing the shortcomings in investment banking and wealth management, establishing a balanced development pattern of “one leadership, one engine, and dual support,” effectively alleviating dependence on a single business and enhancing long-term risk resistance.

The new leadership transition injects new vitality into the implementation of the strategy. In November 2025, Jiang Qingfeng was appointed as general manager; this “post-85” executive has a senior asset management background and has participated in the expansion of the company’s asset management business throughout, leading the dual enhancement of asset management scale and active management capability. Under his leadership, the company’s asset management business adheres to net value-based and diversified transformation, with collective asset management and single asset management developing in coordination, and the research and investment system continually improving, aligning closely with the new strategy. The younger management team better understands digitalization, marketization, and internationalization trends, which will accelerate the company’s breakthroughs in Hong Kong stock IPOs, business innovation, and regional deepening.

Currently, Founder Securities is at a critical stage for Hong Kong stock IPOs; this report, which marks the best year in history, provides strong support for review and valuation. The company’s state-controlled background, regional resource advantages, stable profit records, and clear strategic path are all core value points recognized by the Hong Kong stock market.

Objectively, the company still faces phase-specific challenges: slight revenue decline in the fourth quarter, short-term pressure on asset management income, high proportion of self-operated income, and relatively small investment banking scale. However, these issues are all structural problems during development, and the company has implemented targeted measures: strengthening multi-strategy hedging to reduce volatility in self-operated investments; promoting active management and product innovation in asset management to restore income; focusing on regional quality projects to enhance investment banking share; and continuing digitalization in wealth management to expand customer base and improve efficiency.

With the completion of the Hong Kong stock IPO, the company will open up domestic and foreign financing channels, replenish capital strength, enhance brand influence and internationalization level, further consolidating its leading position in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, promoting continuous optimization of its business structure and achieving a more balanced profit model.

Founder Securities’ 2025 annual report demonstrates its strength with record performance, clarifies its direction through strategic iteration, builds barriers with asset management fundamentals, and wins the future through prudent operations. In the wave of high-quality development in the industry and deepening reforms in the capital market, the company, relying on state-owned shareholder resources, a clear strategic layout, core business advantages, and a youthful management team, is steadily moving from a regionally distinctive brokerage to a national, comprehensive, and international brokerage. Short-term structural differentiation does not alter long-term growth trends; with the landing of the Hong Kong stock IPO and the acceleration of strategic implementation, Founder Securities is expected to unleash greater growth potential, creating sustained value for shareholders and clients.