Best for POEs 2018

Huatai United Securities, a mid-sized brokerage house, specializes in restructuring and mergers and acquisitions, especially for private enterprises.

Since 2004, Huatai has operated a fully functioning M&A business, helping more than 200 private enterprises to conduct M&A both onshore and offshore. The firm has a $2 billion M&A fund, which it uses to co-invest with its clients.

The firm, however, performed well across the board by serving private enterprises. It ranked fifth in the league tables in equity capital markets for China for the year to May 2018, according to Dealogic, and was a lead or co-sponsor for 37 deals with a total value of $6.9 billion in funds raised.

Led by chairman and president Zhou Yi, Huatai is particularly proud of the fact that it can beat China’s brokerage houses in winning deals. Nanjing-based Huatai beat out a number of rivals – among them Citic Securities, China’s top brokerage house – in winning the rights to advise Nasdaq-listed Chinese internet security firm Qihoo 360 Technology to delist and privatize in a $9.3 billion deal in 2017 and to relist in Shanghai in February this year with a valuation of $62 billion.

According to Chinese financial data provider Wind Information Technology Co, Huatai rose from 10th place in the equity capital market leagues in China to fifth place in 2017. In the first six months of 2018, according to Wind, Huatai ranked second with Rmb91.3 billion ($13.4 billion) in funds raised.

Besides helping Qihoo 360, Huatai has led the market in advising half a dozen other Chinese technology companies delist from the US markets and to relist with much higher valuations back in China.

Among them was Chinese online advertising agency Focus Media Holding Co, which in 2013 was delisted from Nasdaq and subsequently privatized in a deal worth $3.8 billion, and then relisted in Shenzhen in 2015 with a market value $21.8 billion.