Citic Securities tops Asia-Pacific investment banking ranks with US$1.45 billion in fees

Chinese investment bank Citic Securities took the top position for overall investment banking fees in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, in 2025, driven by its strong business performance in bond and initial public offering (IPO) underwriting, according to a report released on Wednesday by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).\nThe Beijing-based brokerage generated US$1.45 billion in investment banking fees during the last year, accounting for 5.8 per cent of the total Asia-Pacific investment banking fee pool, the report revealed.\nThis marked a 29 per cent increase in fees compared to the previous year and a 0.4 percentage point gain in market share.\nInvestment banking fees comprise revenues earned from equity capital markets activities, such as IPO underwriting, debt capital markets, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory, as well as syndicated lending services.\n\nChinese rivals filled out the rest of the top five, with China Securities, Bank of China, China International Capital and Guotai Haitong Securities ranking behind Citic, while US bank Morgan Stanley came in sixth.\nCitic claimed the crown as the top bookrunner for Asia-Pacific-issued bonds with 6 per cent market share and about US$299 billion in related proceeds.\nMorgan Stanley topped the equity capital markets underwriting league table with 8.5 per cent market share and US$22 billion in related proceeds.\nGoldman Sachs led the M&A advisory rankings with a 12.9 per cent market share and US$127 billion in transaction value.\nCitic’s dominance in the region’s capital markets came as yuan-denominated dim sum bonds issued by Chinese companies in Hong Kong were on track for a record year in 2025. Chinese search-engine giant Baidu, for example, hired Citic among its joint bookrunners for a 4.5 billion yuan (US$643.5 million) dim sum bond offering in September that followed a 10 billion yuan sale in March.\nBond issuance in yuan is expected to rise further in 2026 after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission rolled out a blueprint last year to promote multicurrency issuance in the city.\nCitic has also benefited from a boom in mainland Chinese listings in Hong Kong. Its Hong Kong branch sponsored about a third of all company IPO applications in the city as of October 7.\n\nInvestment banking fees across Asia-Pacific surged 19 per cent from last year to US$24.9 billion. The figure accounted for 18 per cent of the total fees earned globally, while IB fees from the Americas and Europe accounted for 55 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively, the LSEG report said.\nThe growth was fuelled by buoyant equity capital markets (ECM). Asia-Pacific equity and equity-related offerings totalled US$259.7 billion in 2025, marking the highest annual level since 2022. China accounted for 47.8 per cent of regional ECM proceeds.\nThe region’s IPO offerings raised US$67.3 billion, up about 50 per cent from a year ago, while follow-on offerings reached a four-year high of US$148.1 billion.\n