Citic's profit rises 13% in H1

Citic Securities (600030.SH), China’s largest listed securities firm, recorded a 13.1% rise in profit for the first half of 2011, Reuters reported. The increase comes despite a decrease in the brokerage’s revenues and stagnating equity markets on the mainland. Citic’s net profit rose to US$458.9 million for the first six months of the year, up from US$406 million last year. Revenues, however, dropped by 5% year-on-year to US$1.16 billion. Citic has faced intensifying competition in China’s securities market from other domestic brokerages, such as Haitong Securities (600837.SH) and Industrial Securities (601377.SH), and an increasing number of international players are participating in IPO book-running. The company said this year that it would take a US$374 million stake in CLSA (majority owned by Credit Agricole, ACA.Euronext) as part of a strategy to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region.