Less than 1 month after the acquisition plan was announced, guolian securities has made further progress in its acquisition of Minsheng Securities.

On September 4th, Sinolink announced that the resolutions and sub-resolutions related to the acquisition of Minsheng Securities were approved at the first temporary shareholders meeting in 2024.

The plan proposed by Sinolink Securities on August 8th this year announced that it intends to acquire 99.26% of Minsheng Securities' shares at a price of 29.492 billion yuan through the issuance of shares and other methods.

It is worth mentioning that the remaining 0.74% of shares that have not been acquired are pledge-frozen shares held by the FANHAI system, which do not participate in the transaction and have no impact on the overall acquisition.

According to the pricing calculation of the 29.492 billion yuan acquisition of 99.26% of Minsheng Securities' shares proposed in the draft, the corresponding total reference value of Minsheng Securities is 29.712 billion yuan, equivalent to a P/B ratio of approximately 1.86 times.

According to Wind data, in 2023, Minsheng Securities achieved operating income of 3.799 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of 0.681 billion yuan; during the same period, Sinolink Securities achieved operating income and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of 2.955 billion yuan and 0.671 billion yuan, respectively.

As of the end of 2023, Minsheng Securities' net assets and total assets were 15.828 billion yuan and 59.942 billion yuan, respectively; during the same period, Sinolink Securities' two indicators were 18.124 billion yuan and 87.129 billion yuan, respectively.

Based on the above data estimates, the combined net assets of the two brokerages at the end of last year amounted to 33.952 billion yuan, ranking 24th in the industry, surpassing Sinolink Securities; the total assets were close to 150 billion yuan, surpassing Zheshang Securities to rank 22nd in the industry.

According to the procedure, Guolian Securities will submit relevant documents to the exchange within 3 working days after the shareholders' meeting resolution, and the integration matters of the two brokerages are in the final stage of regulatory review.

A person close to Guolian Securities revealed that the efficient progress of this acquisition is mainly due to two factors.

"On the one hand, this transaction requires the approval of the Jiangsu Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The speed of approval shows the support of the Jiangsu Provincial State-owned Assets for this merger." The person close to Guolian Securities mentioned, "On the other hand, the shareholders of Guolian Securities also have good expectations for this transaction and have reached a consensus."

Another investment bank source close to the transaction pointed out that since brokerage integration often requires prior communication with regulators, it is expected that the relevant regulatory review will be relatively efficient with sufficient preparation.

"Because brokerage integration is currently encouraged by regulators and the industry, and it is also a measure to achieve industry consolidation and accelerate supply-side reforms, it is expected that this transaction will relatively efficiently proceed without significant changes." The investment bank source mentioned.

In fact, the expected consolidation of the securities industry at the bottom of its operation is indeed accelerating.

Since last year, cases such as "Ping An + Fangzheng", "The Pacific + Huachuang", "Guolian + Minsheng", "Zheshang + Guodu", and even recent cases such as "Western + Guorong" and "Guoxin + Wanhe" have been quietly progressing.

In the industry's view, the implementation of relevant integration cases will further accelerate the wave of brokerage integration.

"Currently, it is the bottom of the industry. The counter-cyclical promotion of industry integration actually helps to improve the concentration of the industry and promote high-quality development of the industry," said a non-bank financial analyst at a medium-sized brokerage firm in Peking.