CITIC Securities recently disclosed its 2025 interim report. The financial statements show the company achieved operating revenue of 33.039 billion yuan, up 20.44% year-over-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 13.719 billion yuan, up 29.80% year-over-year, setting a historical record for interim performance.

However, behind the impressive results lie several concerns regarding financial and compliance indicators. The interim report shows that net cash flow from operating activities was 30.347 billion yuan, down 18.93% year-over-year, representing a decrease of 7.085 billion yuan in net inflows. The company attributed this primarily to "increased cash outflows from financial assets held for trading purposes and margin financing."

Meanwhile, the company recorded negative gains from fair value changes of -1.521 billion yuan, a significant decline of 149.67% year-over-year. According to the financial report notes, fair value change losses from derivative financial instruments reached 14.72 billion yuan, creating a substantial drag on overall performance.

Foreign exchange losses also became a burden on performance. In the first half of 2025, CITIC Securities' foreign exchange gains were -1.823 billion yuan, down 221.52% year-over-year, mainly affected by "losses from exchange rate fluctuations and foreign exchange derivative instruments." Notably, while the company's overseas business revenue grew 13.57% year-over-year to 6.912 billion yuan, foreign exchange losses accounted for 26.38% of overseas revenue, severely eroding overseas profits. The overseas business profit margin declined 5.36 percentage points year-over-year to 59.42%.

On the other hand, net cash flow from investment activities turned from -42.897 billion yuan in the same period last year to a positive inflow of 31.812 billion yuan, raising questions about the company's capital structure health.

During the reporting period, the company and its branches faced multiple regulatory penalties, receiving 8 penalty notices in the first half of 2025, making it an industry "penalty leader." Among these, 3 notices targeted investment banking business violations, affecting not only the company but also resulting in penalties for 6 sponsors; 3 notices addressed non-compliance behaviors at branch offices; and 2 additional notices involved violations related to staff lending accounts and stock trading.

In June 2025, CITIC Securities received a written warning from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for inadequate verification of distributor revenue internal controls and related party fund flows in the Huimang Microelectronics IPO sponsorship project, with two sponsors receiving public criticism. In the same month, the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau imposed corrective measures on the Shaoxing and Zhejiang branches for violations including staff providing assessment answers to clients and returning performance rewards. In May, CITIC Securities and four of its sponsors received regulatory warnings from the Shanghai Stock Exchange for a listed company refinancing project. In January, the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau issued a warning letter to the company, pointing out deficiencies in trading management to prevent margin trading clients from "circumventing standards for cash-out" activities.