GF Securities' annual revenue reaches 35.5 billion, the leading brokerage in the Greater Bay Area has delivered a disappointing result.

Source: Yijian Finance

As one of the core cities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou’s listed companies’ performance provides a window for observing the regional economy.

According to Wind data, there are 180 Guangzhou companies listed on China’s A-share market. As of April 6, companies that have already released their annual reports combined generated last year’s total revenue of over 1 trillion yuan, with an average year-over-year growth rate of 9%, reflecting the resilience of Guangzhou’s economic development.

Among them, GF Securities tops the Guangzhou listed-company market value ranking. In 2025, its revenue hit a historic high, and it has remained among the leaders in the securities industry.

1. Coordinated development of business lines; fourth in industry ranking

Wind shows that as of April 3, GF Securities’ total market value on A-shares reached 129.9 billion yuan. Its strength is reflected in its financial statements: in 2025, revenue was 35.49B yuan, up 34.33% year over year; net profit was 13.7B yuan, a sharp increase of 42.18% year over year.

This set of results not only continued last year’s growth momentum, but also led the industry, with both revenue and net profit ranking fourth.

GF Securities’ four major business segments worked in concert. According to its financial report, GF Securities’ wealth management business, trading and institutional business, investment management business, and investment banking business achieved operating income of 14.07B yuan, 11.17B yuan, 9.24B yuan, and 896M yuan respectively, with clear year-over-year growth.

The wealth management business, which contributes 40% of revenue, is GF Securities’ “anchor”.

By the end of 2025, GF Securities’ domestic distribution of financial products had outstanding sales volume of more than 370 billion yuan, up about 42.65% from the end of the prior year; its distribution of non-money market public mutual funds had an industry ranking of fourth by outstanding sales volume.

This is not simply a market tailwind, but a positive feedback loop where strong profitability experience and scale growth reinforce each other.

This also means that GF Securities has transformed from a traditional trading conduit into a wealth management institution that truly creates value for clients.

2. Clear overseas layout; unlocking long-term imagination

In the securities industry, overseas market expansion and increasing efforts in cross-border businesses have become industry consensus. Several industry insiders believe that going global has become one of the main themes for the long-term growth of the securities industry.

GF Securities has a clear layout for internationalization, with competitiveness gradually taking shape, providing imagination for capital markets.

From an industry perspective, by the end of 2025, domestic securities firms had set up 38 overseas first-tier subsidiaries. The layout focuses on Hong Kong, serving as a core stepping stone, and gradually extends to emerging markets and mature markets such as Southeast Asia, Singapore, Japan, and the United States, forming a layout posture of “Hong Kong as the base, with global radiation”.

GF Securities follows the same path, building a cross-border service network: based in Hong Kong, radiating across Southeast Asia, and connecting through to Europe.

It uses its wholly-owned subsidiary GF Holdings (Hong Kong) as the key strategic fulcrum for internationalization. As of last year’s end, the total assets of its overseas subsidiaries were 117.12B yuan, of which GF Holdings (Hong Kong) accounted for 106.84B yuan.

Last year, GF Securities made a third capital increase to GF Holdings (Hong Kong), raising funds to support the development of international business. It established GF Futures (Singapore) and, for the first time, obtained “Cross-border Wealth Management Connect” Southbound trading qualification.

Its cross-border investment banking business achieved breakthroughs in multiple areas. Over the full year, it completed 59 deals of China-funded overseas bond issuance; it completed 23 overseas equity financing projects, with the issuance scale ranking fifth among China securities firms in the Hong Kong market.

GF Securities has continuously enhanced its overseas research capabilities, doubling its service volume, and deepening coverage and service for overseas core institutional investors.

From financing support to wealth management, from trading services to equity investments, GF Securities leverages a globalized layout and specialized services to help Chinese companies go global steadily and participate in international competition.

In 2025, its overseas business grew rapidly, with revenue from its overseas subsidiaries rising to 2.7B yuan.

Relevant personnel from GF Securities said that actively building overseas research capability meets three needs: aligning with the times, serving the strategy, and driving transformation. Looking ahead to 2026, the company will take cross-border integration as the lead and further deepen its global layout.

3. Born at the open frontier; strong in fertile market ground

In fact, GF Securities’ achievements are closely related to the environment of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. The active market economy here provides development conditions and nurtures strong market-oriented genes.

In corporate governance, GF Securities’ unique structure of having no actual controller makes its business decision-making more independent, closer to the market, and with relatively high management flexibility.

GF Securities also built a market-oriented management system and talent development mechanism, incentivizing teams through a pay system linked to performance. Taking the wealth management business as an example, GF Securities launched a strategic transformation in 2016 toward a buy-side advisor model. To that end, it developed a “Star • Investment Advisory” talent cultivation system, helping new hires grow through methods such as rotational assignments and professional training.

With this, GF Securities has cultivated an advisory team equipped with core capabilities such as “understanding clients, mastering products, and mastering allocation.” As of the end of 2025, its number of investment advisory professionals exceeded 4,800, ranking among the top three in the industry (by parent company scope). It serves more than 10 million clients.

Rooted in Guangzhou, GF Securities leads in competition with sharp market instincts and the courage to innovate.

Today, for the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, which is building an international financial hub, GF Securities’ development path can offer some reference for the financial industry.

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