CGS International Holdings has completed its acquisition of CGS-CIMB Securities after acquiring CIMB Group’s remaining stake in their joint venture (JV).
On Dec 29, CGS-CIMB Securities announced that CIMB’s 25.01% stake in CGS-CIMB Securities International (CSI) and 25% stake in CGS-CIMB Holdings (CCH) had been taken over by CGS International.
CSI and CCH are collectively referred to as CGS-CIMB Securities.
CGS International is a subsidiary of China Galaxy Securities, one of the largest securities firms in China with over 15 million customers. China Galaxy is in turn a subsidiary of Central Huijin Investment, which is wholly owned by China Investment Corporation, China’s largest sovereign wealth fund that manages part of its foreign exchange reserves.
Following the completion of the acquisition of the second call option, CGS-CIMB Securities is now wholly owned by CGS International.
In 2018, CIMB Group and CGS International entered into a partnership to operate a regional stockbroking business in Asia, through the sale of CIMB Group’s 50% stake in its stockbroking business to CGI.
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The sale incorporated call options for CGS International to acquire CIMB Group’s stake in CGS-CIMB Securities over a period of time. CGS International exercised its first call option and completed the acquisition of the 24.99% and 25% stake in CSI and CCH respectively from CIMB Group in December 2021.
CGS-CIMB Securities says it will continue to offer a comprehensive suite of customer-centric services and products such as equities trading, leveraged products, wealth management, investment banking, equities research, Shariah-compliant financing, fixed income, currency and commodities, structured products and prime brokerage services.
CEO Carol Fong says: “Since 2018, CGS and CIMB Group have partnered to grow CGS-CIMB Securities into one of the leading integrated financial service providers in Asia. We sincerely thank CIMB Group for its contribution to the business and will continue to leverage our strong relationship built over the years to explore other collaboration opportunities.
“Moving forward, we will strengthen our unique position as the nexus for China-ASEAN relations and the gateway to Asia, and leverage our China Investment Corporation and CGS parentage to connect our clients with more investment opportunities in the region, particularly in China,” she adds.
