Under the trend of securities companies serving the real economy and scientific and technological innovation, the new area near Hong Kong is becoming the "base" for securities companies to deepen their efforts in the Yangtze River Delta.
Recently, Guotai Jun'an and Haitong Securities, two leading securities companies, announced that they would set up branches in the new area near Hong Kong, actively serving the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and helping to build the Shanghai metropolitan area.
As early as October 2020, Industrial Securities entered Lingang as the first brokerage. At that time, Industrial Securities said that Shanghai Free Trade Branch would focus on industry, drive innovation, drive wealth management with institutional business, make breakthroughs in cross-border bonds and cross-border asset management, and strive to establish the first mover advantage of securities companies in financial innovation and industrial finance in the new area.
Over the past two years, more and more securities companies have chosen to take root in the new area near Hong Kong. What is the charm of Hong Kong? What new service models are emerging?
Securities companies take root in the Yangtze River Delta
In August this year, Lingang released the Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Emerging Financial Industries in the New Area of Lingang (2022-2025), which is clear and aims to basically build an emerging financial center characterized by smart finance, openness and integration, and coordination and good governance by 2025. It is mentioned that "the contribution of the financial industry is more prominent, the traditional finance and the emerging financial industry are developing together, and the annual growth rate of the added value of the financial industry is more than 25%".
"Opening" is the key word for the development of the financial industry in the new Lingang District.
As the first securities dealer to set up a branch in the new Lingang area, Li Yong, General Manager of Industrial Securities Shanghai Free Trade Branch, said that, just as the new Lingang area is a "first and first" experimental field for further opening up of national finance, Industrial Securities Shanghai Free Trade Branch is positioned as "the experimental field for Xingzheng Group to carry out cross-border and offshore financial business in China". The business model and means of this branch are quite different from those of traditional branches. The main idea is "first try, product innovation", which is also the original strategic intention of the Group to establish a free trade division company.
According to incomplete statistics by reporters, since 2020, eight securities firms have set up branches in Hong Kong, including Industrial Securities, Kaiyuan Securities, Credit Suisse Securities, Ping An Securities, Huachuang Securities, Huafu Securities, Shenzhen Hong Kong Securities, and Anson Securities.
On the one hand, as the first free trade pilot zone in China, the new port area of Shanghai Free Trade Zone bears the mission of opening up China's capital market to the outside world as a "pilot field", and the port area has also become a hub for facilitating the offshore market and the onshore market; On the other hand, the new Lingang District, located in the southeast corner of Shanghai, has a planned area of more than 300 square kilometers, radiating the entire Yangtze River Delta.
Recently, Haitong Securities launched a number of specific measures to implement the Spatial Synergy Plan of Shanghai Metropolitan Area, which mentioned that it will promote the construction of innovative branches from point to area, actively prepare to build innovative branches in the Linxin District of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, so that it will become the carrier and platform for the company to realize group functions and businesses in the core area, become the carrier of serving the real economy, and become an integrated area of comprehensive competitiveness The experimental field of reform and the practice base of talent training, as well as the pacesetter of the institutional transformation of front-line outlets.
Haitong Securities said that it will explore the transformation path of securities companies "from community to park, from industry to region" along the two main lines of "government park industry enterprise individual" and "investment, financing, insurance, research and wealth management" one-stop service.
Explore a new mode of industry finance integration
At the beginning of its settlement in Lingang in 2020, Li Yong publicly said that Industrial Group was building a professional investment bank focused on the industry, and the new Lingang area was forming a cluster of several strategic emerging industries, which is likely to become another highland of future hard technology enterprises. This is the best time for securities companies, investment banks, and investment departments to jointly expand customers and insurance linkage.
Since the official inauguration of the new port area in August 2019, the industrial system of the new port area has been upgraded from the traditional automobile and equipment manufacturing to the current "4+2+2" industrial system, namely the four core industries of integrated circuit, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and civil aviation, two advantageous industries of high-end equipment manufacturing and intelligent new energy vehicles, and two future industries of hydrogen energy and green remanufacturing.
According to the reporter, at present, a number of securities companies are deeply engaged in important industries, promoting the integrated development of industry and city, and providing comprehensive financial services including equity investment, IPO, bonds, asset securitization and other full life cycle investment and financing for real industry enterprises.
At present, Guotai Jun'an Securities has set up the first phase of the 8 billion yuan harbor Guotai Jun'an Science and Technology Frontier Industry Fund, and accelerated the establishment of a new harbor area division company. Haitong Securities also said that it will actively prepare for the establishment of innovative branches in the new area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
After two years of development, securities companies have developed a new REITs investment and financing mode of "infrastructure+finance" to serve the industry development of the new port area.
On October 13, Guotai Jun'an Harbor Innovation Industrial Park REIT (hereinafter referred to as "Harbor REIT") was opened, with a ceiling of 30% on the day of listing. This is the first public offering REITs in the national standard plant industrial park, and also the first public offering REITs approved in the new area of Lingang.
"The industrial park of standard factory buildings mainly serves manufacturing enterprises, with significant industrial attributes, stable demand and strong tenant stickiness." Tao Geng, president of Guotai Jun'an Securities Asset Management Co., Ltd., introduced to the reporter that compared with the scientific research office industrial park, the standard factory building industrial park, as the carrier of regional industrial development, has a stronger industrial attribute and industrial impetus, and can more directly serve manufacturing enterprises, especially high-end manufacturing enterprises with higher requirements for factory buildings. At the same time, the investment attraction of the standard factory industrial park is often consistent with the development of regional industrial policies, which helps attract upstream and downstream supporting enterprises in the industrial chain, accelerate industrial agglomeration and development, and create regional advantages and leading industries.
"The bottom asset tenants of Lingang REIT are positioned in the high-end intelligent manufacturing industry, attracting a number of well-known enterprises in the intelligent manufacturing industry such as high-tech materials, automotive equipment and precision equipment. By providing these high-end manufacturing enterprises, especially some enterprises at the core of the industry, with production sites that meet their business development needs, they help them better carry out industrial research and development, production, and drive the rapid development of upstream and downstream enterprises." Tao Geng told the reporter that the public REITs in the industrial park are highly compatible with regional development. The assets of the industrial park are an important carrier for the implementation of major national strategies, the implementation of regional industrial policies, and industrial innovation and development. Therefore, they are naturally in line with the national strategic development direction, macro-control policies, and industrial policies. Especially for standard plant assets, the tenants of the assets are manufacturing enterprises, which are more consistent with the policy guidance and requirements of public REITs.
Guotai Junan Asset Management said that the issuance of REIT near the port has opened up a new investment and financing mode of "infrastructure+finance" in the infrastructure industry. On the one hand, it has realized the revitalization of infrastructure stock assets at fair prices, on the other hand, the financing funds will be invested in the investment and development of new industrial park projects as the capital of the port group, realizing the efficient revitalization of the stock of high-quality industrial carriers in the new port area and the effective expansion of the increment. In the long run, the issuance of public REITs in the industrial park may also have a profound impact on the traditional business model of the industrial park, help the park's operators improve their asset management business capabilities, and achieve high-quality development of the park's infrastructure.