2015 is a year of IPOs for Chinese securities firms. In the first half of year, a number of local firms already floated, mostly in Hong Kong. They include GF Securities, Huatai Securities, Guolian Securities and Guotai Junan Securities. Unscathed by the recent stock market rout, some other Chinese securities firms are still determined to follow suit and list in the second half of the year, like CICC, China Merchants Securities, Everbright Securities.
By listing on a stock market, these Chinese firms are looking to expand into HK, from where they can further expand globally. They can’t do that without having the right people in place. We trawled through their websites to find out what type of jobs openings they have now and what type of people they are looking for.
China International Capital Corporation (CICC)
Long seen as the leading Chinese securities firm, CICC has advised in the listings of China’s giant state-owned enterprises in the past decade, and its own IPO seems long overdue. Now it’s finally taking itself onto the Hong Kong market, with some analysts expecting it to come as early as September.
There are now 95 job openings on CICC’s website, among them 30 are front office roles, including analyst, associate, trader and sales. These jobs are not only based in Mainland cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, but span across financial centres around the globe, including Hong Kong, Singapore and London, suggesting that CICC has already built up an international operation, albeit not on a very large scale.
CICC is recruiting 17 investment consultants across the entire Mainland China. All these jobs belong to the wealth management department. FinanceAsia reported recently that wealth management is among a few areas that CICC looks to prop up once the IPO proceeds are in.
China Merchants Securities (CMS)
China Merchants Securities is planning for a HK IPO in the fourth quarter. It now has a massive number of jobs available on its website – 408 in total. One thing immediately stands out is that CMS is looking for 33 industry-focused research analysts and 25 IBD project-based analysts. Most of these posts are based in either Beijing or Shanghai, despite that CMS is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. It just goes to show where most of the frontline businesses are in China now.
Apart from this, there are some other research posts for areas such as portfolio strategy, derivatives product development, asset allocation, and so on. There are also a few openings for traders and institutional sales for both equities and bonds.
Notably, CMS has also been recruiting interns for its investment banking division in the past month. The requirements are stringent. Applicants must be master students from elite universities, be it domestic or overseas. They should be at least in the top 30% academically, and those who have previous internship experiences are favoured. A willingness to travel will also put the applicant is important too.
Hengtai Securities and Everbright Securities
These two securities firms are seeking an IPO in HK later this year too. But currently they don’t have any job openings on their website.
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