Nine Major Bank AICs Post Strong First-Half Profit Growth as State-Owned Lenders Expand Into Hard-Tech Venture Capital

Nine large bank-affiliated financial asset investment companies (AICs) reported strong first-half results, with the five long-established AICs under state-owned banks posting combined net profit of 17.349 billion yuan, up about 140% year on year, according to Jiemian News. CCB Investment's profit rose nearly fivefold. The four newly launched AICs — Cinda Investment, CMB Investment, Industrial Bank Investment and Postal Investment — were also profitable in the first half. Jiemian News reported that the sector is moving beyond debt-to-equity swaps and into hard-tech venture capital as so-called patient capital. In the case of Changxin Technology, which listed this year, all five major state-owned bank AICs are shareholders, holding about 1.915 billion shares in total; as of the close on September 4, the stake was worth 104.9 billion yuan.