SHANGHAI/BEIJING – CITIC Securities Co Ltd posted a 45.8% increase in its third quarter net profit. China’s largest brokerage saw strong growth in commission fees, after expanding rapidly in asset management and investment banking.

According to CITIC, the quarter’s net profit rose from 3.74 billion yuan a previous year to 5.45 billion yuan (851.8 million).

This was the highest quarterly profit growth for the company since 2020’s second quarter, which saw net profit jump 121.7%.

According to the filing, revenue for commission fees paid by asset management and investment banking businesses grew respectively 25.6%, 59% and 25% in the first nine months.

China in 2018 adopted a U.S-style, registration-based IPO system on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, and later in Shenzhen’s start-up board ChiNext, in a bold reform designed to give the market a bigger role in evaluating IPO candidates.

These reforms encourage more companies to list on the mainland, which is good news for leading brokerages that specialize in securities and investment banking.

According to Zheshang Securities’ research note, CITIC had dominated underwriting for the IPO projects at the STAR Market or ChiNext.

According to the filing, brokerage investment in property fell 7.3% from 983 million Yuan to September 2020. However, total investment rose 15% to 1.2 Billion Yuan.