China saw another badly performing securities firm close on New Year's Eve, due to illegal reshuffling and misappropriating of clients' deposits.

 

Xing An Securities, based in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, was taken over by Haitong Securities under the authorization of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

 

Top-performing firm Haitong is expected to annex the company in five to six months and is already running Xing An's finance and IT support departments. Despite this, the sales departments of Xing An will remain open as usual to deal with daily transactions.

 

According to Jiang, director of the general office with Xing An, there are no personnel changes being made at this point.

 

Xing An Securities was founded in 2002 with a registered capital of 715 million yuan (US$88 million) and was established by merging four local small and medium-sized securities firms within Heilongjiang Province. However, the newly formed firm never had a good performance from the start of its business.

 

Insiders said the firm's failed performance could be attributed to the unsuccessful reshuffling of small and medium-sized firms, frequently changing top management and laying off of hundreds of veteran employees in 2002.

 

"In 2002, when the firm was combined from local securities firms, it launched a lay-off plan. Many employees took away their old clients when leaving the firm, and this caused a couple of million yuan's loss," said a source who worked at Xing An. The source requested to remain unnamed.

 

The firm was also tied up in a lawsuit for years due to its illegal acquisition of Qiqihar Securities in 2002. The marathon lawsuit kindled special attention from the securities watchdog, which resulted in the uncovering other illegal performances, include misappropriating clients' deposits.

 

According to Jiang, Haitong sent about one hundred staff members to Xing An's 22 sales branches and 29 service divisions. The two sides held a meeting yesterday to discuss takeover issues.

 

"The takeover work goes well. We will open as usual in the following few months," Jiang said.

 

But what Xing An employees worried about most is if the new boss will launch another lay-off plan.

 

"I am worried about being laid off, actually all the staff in Xing An are worried about the same thing." said the Xing An source,

 

"We are afraid those who ask the question first will be laid off first. So we just wait, and wait silently."

 

Jiang said Haitong is awaiting CSRC's permission to annex Xing An before proceeding.

 

Haitong's total net assets and net profit made it the country's top firm in 2002. The ambitious firm is seeking proper acquisition objectives all over the country.

 

The Chinese Government has been quickly removing poor players and increasing support for solidly performing firms. With the takeover of Xing An by Haitong, China is expected to continue seeing a series of perditions and consolidations within the industry.

 

(China Daily January 4, 2006)