CBN丨Key equity transfer of state-owned financial firms boosts A-share

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programControl of four Chinese financial institutions is set to be transferred to Central Huijin Investment;"Ne Zha 2" joins all-time global box office top 10.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hoursThe A-share market rose on Monday as news that Central Huijin Investment, an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, is set to take control of four major State-owned financial institutions, further strengthening investor sentiment.The move, according to analysts, will enhance the ability of State-owned distressed asset managers to resolve risks and improve the performance of the so-called "national team" — a group of State-backed financial institutions acting as a stabilizer of the stock market — to better perform its role, while igniting hopes of potential mergers among relevant investment banks.On Friday, three State-owned bad debt managers — China Cinda Asset Management, China Orient Asset Management and China Great Wall Asset Management — along with China Securities Finance Corp, which provides margin financing to securities firms and supports the “national team,” announced that their controlling shareholder, the Ministry of Finance, will transfer its shares to Central Huijin Investment at no cost.The announcements caused relevant stocks to surge on Monday, as Dongxing Securities, a subsidiary of China Orient Asset Management, went up 5.91 percent on Monday morning while Cinda Securities rose 8.99 percent.This equity transfer marks a step in implementing the 2023 institutional reform plan, which calls for the separation of market-oriented entities managed by central financial regulatory authorities. As part of this reform, the Ministry of Finance will shift its focus from management to a supervisory role."The centralized and market-oriented management of asset management companies by Central Huijin would enhance the efficiency of State-owned financial capital allocation and strengthen risk control capabilities," said a CITIC Securities report.With China Securities Finance also included in the equity adjustment, the "national team" is expected to achieve better coordination in making unified actions, the report said.Following the equity transfers, Central Huijin will control six securities firms, including China International Capital Corp, China Galaxy Securities, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, Cinda Securities, Dongxing Securities and Great Wall Glory Securities.Greater Bay Area, Greater futureChina has issued a new document aimed at leveraging the functions and advantages of arbitration system, to create a first-class business environment of the Greater Bay Area. The document clarifies the "Hong Kong (Macao) capital, Hong Kong (Macao) arbitration" system, proposing that Hong Kong and Macao-funded enterprises in the nine mainland cities in GBA can designate either the mainland or the two SARs as the arbitration venue for resolving commercial disputes. The document also emphasized that pilot construction of the international commercial arbitration centers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen should be integrated with the development of the Hong Kong and Macao international legal and dispute resolution service centers.The GDP of 27 Chinese cities surpassed 1 trillion yuan in 2024. In the GBA, Shenzhen and Guangzhou each exceeded 3 trillion yuan in GDP, while Foshan and Dongguan surpassed 1 trillion yuan last year. Shanghai and Beijing took first and second positions with respective GDPs of 5.39 trillion yuan and 4.98 trillion yuan in 2024. The Yangtze River Delta claimed the championship as a region, with 9 cities entering the trillion-yuan club, followed by the GBA with four and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region with three.Alpha Lau, the director-general of investment promotion at InvestHK, will commence an official visit to Tokyo and Seoul on Monday to promote the city's latest business opportunities. Lau is set to meet with representatives of prominent Japanese and South Korean corporations, business associations and incubators in various sectors, including financial services, business and professional services, fintech, and innovation and technology, according to the SAR government's official website.Next on industry and company newsThe box office including presales of Chinese animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 topped 12 billion yuan as of 2 p.m. today, moving to 10th in the global box office chart, according to ticket info tracker Beacon. Its box office in North America reached USD8.3 million as of today. China’s 2025 box office exceeded 20 billion yuan as of 9 p.m. yesterday, a record short time to reach the milestone. Xiaomi may maintain a growth of over 30 percent this year and is expected to spend 30 billion yuan in R&D in 2025, said Chairman Lei Jun today. Also, Xiaomi will launch its first central air conditioner at the end of this month to compete with Japan's Daikin and enter the high-end large home appliance market, President William Lu said on Weibo today. The new product leads in energy-saving technology, Lu added.Baidu said yesterday that it will fully integrate its search engine to DeepSeek and its AI model Ernie to enrich and diversify the search experience. Tencent also announced the same day that its messaging app WeChat allows some users to search via DeepSeek’s LLM DeepSeek-R1. The function is in beta test now.Tencent’s Honor of Kings jumped six spots to became the world's highest-grossing mobile game in January, data from Sensor Tower showed today. Chinese New Year promotions boosted player spending to the second-highest monthly revenue in the game’s history. Meanwhile, the gaming giant has linked arms with the Esports World Cup Foundation, with Tencent Esports becoming EWCF’s China strategy partner. The Chinese tech giant will offer marketing expertise, consulting, and operational support to bring the Esports World Cup closer to China’s 490 million eSports fans.Around 824,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai last year, up 31 percent from the year before, according to the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. The city saw record 18.72 million international overnight visitors, an increase of 9 percent in the period.Sixteen Chinese cities, including the first-tier city of Guangzhou, will launch a pilot program aimed at enhancing data sharing to optimize logistics and lower costs. The 16 cities, mostly key transportation hubs located in eastern or central China such as Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Zhengzhou, will focus on increasing data openness, including multimodal transport data and the integrated application of data from manufacturing, commerce, and logistics industries, the National Development and Reform Commission wrote in a recent notice. Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock marketChinese stocks rose on Monday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.3 percent and the Shenzhen Component went up 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed almost flat while the TECH index dipped 0.5 percent.