Brokerages intensively listing properties to recover funds, focusing on core responsibilities and main business

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By Reporter Zhou Shangyu

Since 2026, the pace of idle asset disposal in the securities industry has accelerated. Many listed brokerages have listed idle properties on property exchanges, focusing funds and resources on core businesses. Among them, Hongta Securities publicly listed six properties located in Kunming, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other cities, with a total listing price of 263 million yuan.

Focusing on core responsibilities and improving capital efficiency have become key drivers of transformation in the securities industry. Selling idle properties through public listings is evolving from individual cases to industry-wide practice. Since last year, brokerages such as Founder Securities, Huaxi Securities, and Guolian Minsheng have disposed of non-core assets through public listings, agreements, and other methods. The main purpose of these disposals is to optimize asset structure, activate existing resources, and return to core business.

For example, Hongta Securities explicitly stated in its announcement that this asset disposal will help activate idle assets and improve asset operation efficiency without significantly impacting the company’s operations. Regarding the direct gains from selling properties, based on valuation results and financial forecasts, if Hongta Securities completes the disposal at assessed value, the company will realize a property disposal income of 262.79 million yuan, with an estimated total profit of 186.83 million yuan.

The concentrated sale of properties and the cleanup of non-core assets reflect a shift in industry development models. Under the capital-conserving development approach, capital-intensive businesses such as proprietary trading, margin financing, and capital intermediaries remain important for revenue and market competitiveness. However, these businesses consume significant net capital and require high capital efficiency. Meanwhile, light-capital, high-value-added services like wealth management, investment banking, and fintech have become core directions for industry transformation. Overall, selling idle properties not only boosts current profits directly but also quickly recovers cash flow, providing essential support for future wealth management transformation, fintech investments, and risk resilience building.

Zheng Lei, Chief Economist of Samoyed Cloud Technology Group, said: “The industry’s集中处置闲置资产 and promotion of light-asset operations fundamentally reflect a shift from ‘scale-driven’ to ‘efficiency-driven’ development. In the short term, this is a pragmatic response to low interest rates and low valuation challenges; in the long term, it is a strategic choice to build modern investment banking capabilities and align with international peers.”

“However, it should be noted that light-assetization is a means, not an end. Ultimately, industry development must return to the core question: ‘Can we create differentiated value for clients?’ If assets are passively disposed of just to improve financial reports without building a moat around core businesses, then ‘slimming down’ is merely a different form of ‘virtual fat,’ making sustainable development difficult,” Zheng Lei added.

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Editor: Gao Jia

【Source: Securities Daily】