CLSA says insider dealing investigation in China will have little impact on operations

CLSA, the brokerage bought out by Citic Securities in 2012, said Tuesday's reports that top executives of its parent company were under investigation in China for insider dealing would have little impact on its operations.

A spokeswoman for the brokerage said the investigations are restricted to Citic's onshore business and have nothing to do with the international activities of Hong Kong-headquartered CLSA.

"It's been completely separate," said Simone Wheeler, CLSA's head of communications.

Citic Securities, China's biggest brokerage, said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier this week that company president Cheng Boming, head of operations Yu Xinli, and Wang Jinling, from its information technology centre, were under investigation for alleged insider trading and leaking inside information.

Cheng is a chairman of Citic Securities International, Citic's offshore arm which has newly merged its corporate finance business with CLSA. About 40 equity capital markets and debt capital markets staff were transferred from Citic to CLSA's office in Hong Kong in May this year as part of the newly rebranded Citic CLSA Securities business.

Wheeler said she expects the probe to have no impact on CLSA's operations. "The focus of our expansion in the past few years had been in US, Europe and Australia," Wheeler said, adding Citic has no representation on either CLSA's board or executive committee and plays no role in setting CLSA's strategy or day-to-day operations.