Zheshang Securities Executive Reshuffle: 56-year-old Investment Banking Veteran Cheng Jingdong Promoted to President, Can He Lead a New Leap?

Zheshang Securities has recently undergone significant management restructuring. Following the change of the chairman, the president position has also been replaced. The new president, Cheng Jingdong, is a senior vice president who has served the company for seven years. He was directly appointed by the major shareholder, Zhejiang Transportation Investment Group, representing a typical internal promotion. This seasoned financial professional with a doctoral degree has a career spanning regulatory agencies, banking, legal, and investment banking sectors. His appointment marks a new phase in the restructuring of Zheshang Securities’ core management team.

Currently 56 years old, Cheng Jingdong has extensive regulatory experience, having worked at the People’s Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission for over 13 years. After transitioning to financial institutions in 2006, he held key positions at Bohai Bank, Everbright Bank, and CICC. In 2019, he joined Zheshang Securities to oversee the investment banking business. Under his leadership, the company’s bond underwriting volume has ranked in the top ten industry-wide for five consecutive years. From 2019 to the first half of 2025, the company completed 1,360 primary underwriting projects with a total value of 647.7 billion yuan. However, due to market environment changes, the bond underwriting ranking fell to 12th in the first half of 2025, and equity underwriting business also contracted significantly.

This management adjustment exhibits systemic features. After the former president, Qian Wenhui, took over as chairman in October 2025, the company completed the president change within just one month. Qian Wenhui has a background in transportation and previously led the merger and acquisition integration of Zheshang Securities and Guodu Securities. He currently serves as chairman of both firms. In addition to the core leadership changes, the company also replaced key positions such as chief risk officer and chief financial officer within the year, forming an “one president, three vice presidents” senior management structure, though the CFO role is still temporarily held by the chairman.

Personnel upheaval in the research institute has also attracted attention. Since the beginning of the year, chief analysts covering macroeconomics, chemicals, banking, and other sectors have resigned one after another, with some teams experiencing collective departures. According to the Securities Industry Association, by mid-February, Zheshang Securities’ analyst team had shrunk by 12 members to 140. These personnel changes are related to last year’s compliance controversy involving the former fixed income chief, Qin Han. Subsequently, the company dismissed four research management personnel, indicating ongoing internal governance upgrades.

Performance exhibits structural characteristics. In the first three quarters of 2025, Zheshang Securities achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.892 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.57%, but the growth rate lagged behind the industry average. The net income from brokerage commissions reached 2.325 billion yuan, a 59.65% surge year-on-year, nearly matching the entire 2024 revenue. Proprietary trading and margin financing businesses also benefited from market recovery. However, asset management fee income declined for three consecutive years, decreasing 16.03% year-on-year to 256 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2025. Industry analysis indicates that new asset management regulations, intensified market competition, and the diversion of public fund flows are key factors.

The effects of mergers and acquisitions have yet to fully materialize. After gaining substantive control of Guodu Securities in 2025, Zheshang Securities reported a 4.42% decline in operating income in the first half of the year to 749 million yuan, and an 8.1% drop in net profit to 358 million yuan, underperforming industry peers. How to reverse Guodu Securities’ poor performance and mitigate existing litigation risks remains a pressing issue for the controlling shareholder. Currently, Zheshang Securities ranks 18th in operating income among 50 A-share listed brokerages and 22nd in net profit attributable to shareholders, still short of its strategic goal to enter the top 15.

The new management faces multiple challenges. Cheng Jingdong, upon becoming president, needs to shift from an investment banking executor to a comprehensive operator, revitalizing bond underwriting advantages and breaking through equity financing bottlenecks. Qian Wenhui must coordinate resource integration between the two brokerages, controlling costs while enhancing profitability. Data shows that Zheshang Securities’ operating expenses decreased by 60.36% in the first three quarters of 2025 year-on-year, but revenue fluctuated due to accounting standard adjustments. The revenue for the first three quarters was 6.789 billion yuan, a 66.73% increase after adjustments, still below the 10 billion yuan scale. How to convert market dividends into sustainable growth momentum will test the strategic resolve and execution capability of the new management team.