June 20 (NBD) -- Huatai Securities (601688.SH) reported a revenue of 728 million yuan (113 million U.S. dollars) from merger and acquisition (M&A) consulting services for the year of 2017, taking the first place among Chinese securities firms, according to the ranking list evaluating M&A consulting performance released by the Securities Association of China last week.

Far surpassing the second-placed CSC Financial Co., Ltd. (6066.HK), Huatai Securities' M&A consulting revenue accounted for 22 percent of the sum of the top 20 on the list for 2017, up from 16 percent in 2016, which indicates higher degree of industry concentration.

Huatai Securities' subsidiary Huatai United Securities and CSC Financial have secured 20 and 23 M&A consulting projects, respectively, since the beginning of this year, becoming the only two securities firms in China that obtained over 20 M&A consulting cases.

However, some other securities companies saw a decline in their M&A consulting business in 2017, including Orient Securities Company Limited (600958.SH) and Guosen Securities Co., Ltd. (002736.SZ) whose M&A consulting revenue halved in 2017 compared with the previous year.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn