Hou Wei Re-elected as Chairman of Shanxi Securities, International Expansion Accelerating?

How will AI · Hou Wei’s reappointment promote Shanxi Securities’ internationalization process?

Produced by | China Visit Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

Recently, Shanxi Securities held its 29th meeting of the 4th Board of Directors smoothly. The nomination plan for the new board election was officially announced. The current Chairman, Hou Wei, was re-nominated as a non-independent director candidate for the 5th Board, and General Manager Wang Yili was also nominated for re-election. The core management team remains stable. As an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in Shanxi’s capital market, Hou Wei will continue to lead this regional leading securities firm with total assets exceeding 80 billion yuan, steadily advancing in a new cycle of performance recovery, structural optimization, and cross-border expansion. This board change not only ensures the continuity of business strategy but also demonstrates the company’s firm commitment to improving quality and efficiency, breaking through transformation through measures such as optimizing shareholder structure, streamlining branches, and increasing capital for international business, thus laying a solid foundation for long-term high-quality development.

This board re-election is a routine adjustment to improve corporate governance and optimize decision-making systems, characterized by steady progress and structural refinement. According to the meeting’s review, the company nominated nine director candidates, including five non-independent directors and four independent directors. The independent director lineup remains unchanged, continuing the professional and independent decision-making supervision system. On the non-independent director side, core executives like Hou Wei and Wang Yili were successfully re-elected, and new nominees from major shareholders Shanxi Financial Holdings, Tai Steel Group, and Shanxi International Power were added. The newly elected Wang Weiping further strengthens the coordination between shareholders and management. Former directors Li Xiaoping and Xia Gui did not run due to work adjustments. The board structure has become more streamlined and efficient.

The unanimous approval from shareholders for this re-election is mainly rooted in the leapfrog development Shanxi Securities has achieved under Hou Wei’s leadership over the past decade. Hou Wei joined Shanxi Trust Investment Company in 1994, entered Shanxi Securities’ management in 2001, and has served as Chairman since 2015, holding the position for ten years. During this period, he led the company’s transformation from a regional securities firm into a comprehensive financial institution, doubling assets, expanding business scope, and enhancing capital strength and industry standing. As of the end of September 2025, Shanxi Securities’ total assets reached 81.522 billion yuan, with continuously strengthening risk resistance, becoming an indispensable core force in Shanxi’s financial system. In the process of deepening financial reforms and serving the real economy in Shanxi, Shanxi Securities has always played a leading role in the capital market, which also provides a solid performance and reputation foundation for management’s reappointment.

In terms of performance, Shanxi Securities is emerging from previous volatility, showing a positive trend of stabilization and resilience. From 2023 to 2024, due to market environment changes and other factors, the company’s operating income declined for two consecutive years, facing certain operational pressures. In response, the company quickly adjusted its strategies, and since 2025, performance has significantly recovered. In the first three quarters, total operating income reached 2.459 billion yuan, up 13.53% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 732 million yuan, a 37.34% increase year-on-year, with profit growth leading revenue growth and markedly improving profitability. Quarterly data shows that in Q3 2025, net profit attributable to shareholders slightly decreased by 3.01% year-on-year. Short-term profit fluctuations are mainly influenced by market conditions and business rhythm, but the overall recovery trend remains unchanged, highlighting the need for further optimization of revenue structure and enhancement of profit stability.

In cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and talent incentives, Shanxi Securities adheres to principles of strict cost control and frontline-oriented incentives, optimizing compensation structures and management efficiency. As of June 30, 2025, the company employed 2,926 staff, a reduction of 48 from the end of last year. The personnel structure continues to be streamlined. In the first half of 2025, operating expenses were 1.026 billion yuan, up 3.03% year-on-year, with business and management fees increasing by 15.43%, and employee compensation reaching 669 million yuan, up 21.19%. Roughly calculated, the average monthly salary per employee was about 38,100 yuan. The salary increase mainly targeted frontline teams to stimulate business vitality and retain core talent, aligning with the talent-driven nature of the securities industry. In contrast, key management personnel’s salaries in the first half of the year totaled 6.4382 million yuan, a decrease of 1.69 million yuan from the same period last year. The management’s voluntary salary reduction demonstrates a sense of shared hardship and responsibility for the company’s development, with cost control effects gradually becoming evident.

In response to intensified industry competition and regional resource integration needs, Shanxi Securities has implemented branch contraction and optimization strategies focusing on core regions, making its operational layout more precise. Since Q3 2025, the company has closed the Beijing Guomao and Liuzhou Square Road branches, and its Green Dahu Futures branch also withdrew from Yinchuan. By shutting down and transferring underperforming branches, the company reduces operational costs and reallocates resources to high-yield regions and core businesses. This branch optimization does not mean business contraction but rather resource reallocation. The company aims to enhance offline service efficiency, promote online-offline integration, and build a more efficient wealth management service network.

Internally, Shanxi Securities is also accelerating international expansion through substantial capital investments. Recently, the company announced an additional 200 million yuan investment in its wholly-owned subsidiary Shanxi Securities Asset Management, increasing its registered capital to 700 million yuan, focusing on cross-border investment and related businesses to meet clients’ global asset allocation needs. As early as October 2025, the company announced a 1 billion Hong Kong dollar capital increase for its Hong Kong subsidiary, Shanxi Securities International, raising its registered capital to 2 billion yuan, further strengthening its offshore investment, wealth management, cross-border investment banking, and other comprehensive financial services. Shanxi Securities Asset Management has a solid operational foundation, with nearly 70 million yuan in net profit in 2025. This capital increase will further amplify its asset management advantages, creating a coordinated development pattern of domestic and overseas businesses and cultivating new profit growth points.

From industry development trends, the securities sector is at a critical stage of differentiated competition and high-quality growth. Regional securities firms face dual opportunities for transformation and specialization. Hou Wei’s reappointment as Chairman indicates that Shanxi Securities will continue its strategic focus—deepening its local market, serving the real economy, and accelerating the coordinated development of wealth management, asset management, and international business. Moving forward, the company will prioritize performance growth, optimize its business structure, consolidate traditional strengths such as investment banking, brokerage, and asset management, and develop emerging sectors like cross-border finance, green finance, and tech innovation finance to enhance its comprehensive financial services.

Overall, this stable board re-election reflects mature governance and clear strategic direction. The reappointment of core management provides stability for long-term development. Despite ongoing industry cyclical fluctuations posing some short-term challenges, the trend of performance recovery is clear, with ongoing cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and international expansion taking effect. Under Hou Wei’s leadership, Shanxi Securities is leveraging sound governance and innovative reforms, driven by dual engines of quality improvement and cross-border expansion, steadily progressing toward a modern securities firm with stronger overall strength and distinctive advantages. This will also contribute more significantly to the development of Shanxi’s capital market and financial openness.