Net profit hits a new high! The first annual report of A-share futures companies is released

Among the four futures companies listed on China’s A-share market, Nanhua Futures was the first to release its 2025 performance results.

On the evening of March 27, Nanhua Futures’ earnings report showed that in 2025 it generated operating revenue of 1.388 billion yuan, up 2.45% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 486 million yuan, up 6.18%, with net profit reaching a historical high. At the same time, the company plans to implement a bonus issue and cash dividend: 4.5 shares to be issued for every 10 shares held, with a cash dividend of 0.69 yuan (including tax).

In terms of scale indicators, Nanhua Futures expanded simultaneously on both the asset side and the equity side. As of the end of 2025, the company’s total assets were 65.473 billion yuan, up 33.99%; owners’ equity attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 5.596 billion yuan, up 35.98%. On the business “core fundamentals,” the equity size of domestic futures brokerage clients reached 38.982 billion yuan, demonstrating a steady growth trend.

Brokerage business transformation, risk management business continues to gain momentum

In 2025, global economic volatility increased amid multiple factors interwoven such as geopolitical conflicts, trade frictions, and policy adjustments. Meanwhile, there were both fluctuations and divergences in commodity prices, and demand for risk management by real-economy enterprises rose significantly. At the same time, China’s futures market continued on a development track of expanding capacity and opening up in tandem.

Data show that the number of futures and options product varieties increased to 164 for the full year. The total market funds surpassed 2 trillion yuan, the effective number of customers exceeded 2.7 million accounts, and the share of法人 customers in open interest exceeded 65%. “Insurance + futures” continued to broaden its coverage, further enhancing the futures market’s ability to serve the real economy. For the full year, cumulative trading volume reached 9.074 billion lots, and trading value was 766.25 billion yuan; year over year, they increased by 17.4% and 23.74%, respectively, and market activity rose markedly.

But while industry conditions improved, the competitive landscape has also been reshaped. On the one hand, strong regulation has continued to be pushed forward; the supporting rules for the “Futures and Derivatives Law” have been continuously refined, and the new “nine provisions” clearly emphasize function and risk control. On the other hand, profitability pressure on traditional intermediation (“channel”) business is mounting, forcing futures companies to transform toward risk management and wealth management; capital strength, technology capability, and professional talent have become key dividing lines.

As a traditional core business, in 2025 the futures brokerage business faced an industry-wide common challenge of “increasing production without increasing revenue.” Competition driven by similarity intensified, and commission rates continued to face downward pressure.

In response, in its annual report, Nanhua Futures said the company proactively adjusted its strategic direction, focusing on institutionalized and industrialized customers, and promoting optimization of its business structure. On the one hand, the company deepened its efforts with diversified financial institution clients such as private funds, insurance, and securities, continuously expanding the customer base of special legal entities. On the other hand, it increased the intensity of service to industrial customers, especially listed companies and leading enterprises, enhancing customer stickiness through integrated services such as delivery and hedging.

As the core of futures-company transformation, risk management business continues to gain momentum. In 2025, Nanhua Futures advanced coordinated development around three major segments: over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, basis trading, and market-making business.

Among them, the OTC derivatives business maintained steady growth, with newly added notional principal of 749 billion yuan for the full year. Nanhua Futures strengthened its risk-control capabilities through system upgrades and improved rules, and continued to promote cross-border interest-rate swap and swap income-related swap businesses to provide hedging tools linked across domestic and overseas markets for enterprises. At the same time, relying on its independently developed commodity index, it explored the application of swaps and OTC options to improve service precision.

Wealth management accelerates rollout, overseas business becomes a key incremental growth driver

As the industry’s transformation deepens, wealth management has become a new focal point of competition. Nanhua Futures relies on its three licenses—asset management, fund distribution, and public mutual funds—to continuously improve its business framework.

In the asset management business, Nanhua Futures strengthens cooperation with bank wealth-management subsidiaries and trust institutions through strategy innovation and channel expansion, resulting in a more diversified customer structure. As of the end of 2025, its asset management scale reached 1.081 billion yuan.

For the fund distribution business, it builds three major centers—“product, operations, and marketing”—to realize standardized and system-based operations, with distribution scale reaching 337 million yuan for the full year. In terms of public mutual funds, the company adheres to a direction of steady development. By year-end, Nanhua Fund’s public mutual fund scale was 19.136 billion yuan, gradually forming a brand effect.

Against the backdrop of continuously deepening two-way opening of China’s futures market, overseas business is becoming the industry’s new growth engine.

In recent years, China’s futures market has visibly accelerated its internationalization, including a series of mechanism innovations such as QFII participation in commodity futures, and overseas exchanges listing “China price” contracts. These efforts have continuously increased global influence.

Nanhua Futures is also accelerating its layout in this process. The company has already obtained multiple membership and clearing qualifications, including those from CME, LME, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), and SGX, among others. It has also become a warehouse receipt-holding institution for LME Hong Kong delivery warehouses, further connecting the cross-border industrial service chain.

As of the end of 2025, Nanhua Futures’ equity of overseas brokerage clients reached HK$23.306 billion, and its overseas asset management scale was HK$4.812 billion. By strengthening pricing capabilities, system stability, and the customer service system, the company’s overseas business scale and influence have risen in step.

Nanhua Futures said that as a publicly listed company in the futures industry, in 2025 the company continued to improve the licensing layout of various businesses. Through resource integration and coordinated development among different businesses, it has formed a “dual-wheel driven” pattern of “building foundations domestically and breaking through overseas,” effectively enhancing the company’s overall competitiveness and ability to withstand risks, and achieving simultaneous improvement in both profitability scale and quality.

Industry insiders have noted that as the futures industry shifts from scale expansion to a stage focused on function enhancement and professional competition, in the future—driven by the continued release of risk management needs and deeper opening up to the outside—leading futures companies with comprehensive service capabilities and an international perspective are expected to further consolidate their advantageous position in the next round of industry reshuffling.

Editors: Wang Lul i

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