The First Chinese Broker Cleared for Crypto in Hong Kong Is Going Private

Guotai Haitong Securities offered on Friday to take its Hong Kong-listed arm private, valuing the unit at HK$28.6 billion (about $3.6 billion). The price is HK$3.00 a share in cash, a 44.2% premium to the last close before the stock was halted.

Guotai Junan International, the target, owns the first Chinese state-backed brokerage that Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission cleared to deal in virtual assets. The regulator upgraded the unit's securities license in June 2025 to cover bitcoin, ether and tether for clients.

A delisting would end separate reporting for that desk and for the rest of the Hong Kong business. Guotai Junan International publishes its own accounts now. After the scheme, those numbers fold into a parent listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

A 44% Premium and 1.8 Times Book Value

Guotai Haitong and parties acting in concert already hold about 66% of the shares and would cancel the rest under a scheme of arrangement, the two companies said in a joint announcement. The stock would then leave the Hong Kong exchange.

The HK$3.00 price is 46.5% above the 30-day average close and 37.7% above the 60-day average, and about 1.8 times the unit's audited net asset value for 2025, according to the announcement.

Guotai Junan International reported a sharp earnings rebound for that year. Profit rose 287% to HK$1.35 billion and revenue rose 41% to HK$6.23 billion, the company said in its annual results, with return on equity at 8.7% against 2.3% a year earlier.

A Two-Year Wind-Down Is Running Alongside the Deal

Chinese regulators are in the middle of closing the unlicensed route mainland residents used to reach offshore markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission fined Futu Holdings and UP Fintech, the parent of Tiger Brokers, and named Longbridge Securities on May 22, in penalties totaling about $331 million across the two firms that disclosed figures.

Under an eight-agency plan approved by the State Council, existing mainland clients of those brokers may only sell and withdraw during a two-year transition. Futu's share of the bill was about $271 million, and mainland clients accounted for roughly 20% of its revenue.

Guotai Junan International sat on an earlier edge of the same campaign. Its Hong Kong securities unit issued a notice suspending mainland client accounts in 2023, then took it down from public view.

The announcement does not mention that campaign. Guotai Haitong said instead that owning the unit outright would let it invest for the long term, "free from the pressures of rapidly changing market conditions."

Hong Kong Keeps Adding Licensed Crypto Brokers

The virtual-asset permission is not unique to the target. Tiger Brokers pushed its own license upgrade out to retail clients at 0.2% a trade with no custody fee, while its parent wound down mainland accounts under the CSRC order.

That parent, UP Fintech, swung to a quarterly loss once it booked the fine. Guotai Junan International's own approval covers dealing through omnibus arrangements with licensed platforms rather than running a venue.

Futu has kept building in Hong Kong through a harder run of local scrutiny, including an order to freeze HK$125 million tied to suspected IPO fraud.

Hong Kong now counts 12 licensed virtual-asset trading platforms, which the SFC has been clearing in batches after inspections. A Virtual Asset Licensing Bill covering over-the-counter dealing and custody is due later this year.

The target has its own history with that regulator, which fined Guotai Junan Securities $1.3 million over client identity checks.

Guotai Haitong has not said what happens to the crypto license once the shares stop trading. It is paying about 1.8 times book for a business that earned HK$1.35 billion last year.