CICC, dubbed ‘China’s Goldman Sachs’, aims to cash in on slumping global markets, expand overseas

China International Capital Corporation (CICC), the country’s first investment bank, will take advantage of the global downturn caused by the coronavirus to expand overseas and win a larger share of the international market, executives said on Tuesday.

After the last financial crisis in 2008, CICC set up offices in the US, UK and Singapore and managed to hire talent from top international investment banks amid waves of lay-offs in the financial industry. The company intends to do the same this time around, chief executive Huang Zhaohui said during a press conference.

“The economic and financial crisis resulting from the coronavirus outbreak has created an excellent opportunity for us to speed up our global expansion,” said Huang, in his first post-results conference since taking the helm in December.

Overseas business, including new share issuance in the Hong Kong market, accounted for nearly a quarter of CICC’s overall revenue last year. The unfolding coronavirus pandemic globally has led to huge slumps in financial markets around the world, with trillions of dollars worth of market capitalisation wiped out from stocks.

Huang also stressed CICC’s strategic plan to invest heavily in expanding its manpower, upgrading technology and raising more capital over the next two to three years, as it aims to become a top-notch global investment bank. The company will prioritise market share over employees’ average income, he said, and put revenue growth before return on equity, which is a measurement of profitability.