Deposit interest rates enter the "1 era", and listed companies adjust their positions to allocate high-interest "flat replacement"
2024-08-06
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A new round of bank deposit interest rate cuts has begun. After the state-owned banks lowered their deposit interest rates, joint-stock banks and urban and rural commercial banks have followed suit in recent days. Deposit interest rates have fully entered the "1 era".
As interest rates fall, coupled with the impact of factors such as financial "water squeezing" and the prohibition of "manual interest adjustments", the phenomenon of corporate deposit "moving" continues, and the scale of funds invested by companies in bank wealth management products and other products may continue to rise.
Choice data shows that in 2024, A-share listed companies purchased deposit assets of about 182.858 billion yuan, accounting for about 64%, a certain decline compared with the same period last year. At the same time, the proportion of listed companies subscribing to wealth management products rose to 10.18%, and the scale of investment in securities companies' income certificates and reverse repurchase of treasury bonds also gradually increased.
Industry insiders believe that as high-interest deposit products expire, in order to obtain stable returns and improve the efficiency of fund use, companies need to find more high-interest "alternative" products, and the investment and financial management configuration structure of listed companies will also change further.
In the era of low interest rates, listed companies adjust their portfolios
According to Choice data, in 2024, the total amount of entrusted wealth management by A-share listed companies will be 282.84 billion yuan (including only those in implementation, excluding those with plans or completed implementation, the same below), of which about 182.858 billion yuan will be used to purchase deposit assets, accounting for about 64%. In the same period last year, this proportion was still around 70%.
The water in the "pool" of corporate deposits flows into high-interest "alternative" products such as wealth management and brokerage income certificates.
This year, listed companies have shown an increased enthusiasm for financial management. Since 2024, the amount of financial products subscribed by listed companies has increased from 23.7 billion yuan to 28.8 billion yuan, accounting for 10.18%.
The latest listed company to purchase wealth management products is Jiangshan Opai (603208.SH). On August 3, Jiangshan Opai issued the "Announcement on the Progress of the Company's Use of Idle Own Funds for Cash Management". The announcement shows that the company recently used 100 million yuan of its own idle funds to purchase Agricultural Bank of China Wealth Management Agricultural Bank of China Anxin Tiantianli Interbank Deposit Certificates and Deposit Enhancement Wealth Management Products (Low Volatility Enjoyment for Corporates); and used 50 million yuan to purchase CITIC Bank Wealth Management Anyingxiang Fixed Income Stable Benefit Seven-Day Holding Period No. 3 Wealth Management Products.
There are also companies that have invested more than 2.5 billion yuan in wealth management products at one time. Beiyuan Group (601568.SH) announced at the end of July that it would use 1.3 billion yuan of idle raised funds to purchase Xi'an Bank's "Steady Profit" No. 1D, and use 1.2 billion yuan of idle funds to purchase Chang'an Bank's "Interest and Profit" No. 60. The annualized rate of return for both products is 2.9%.
(Source: Beiyuan Group Announcement)
In addition to financial products, the First Financial reporter noticed that stable investment products such as securities firm income certificate products, treasury bond reverse repurchases, and asset management plans have become the "new favorites" of listed companies.
Taking brokerage income certificates as an example, since 2024, the total amount of brokerage income certificate products purchased by listed companies has reached 16.2 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 134.78% from 6.9 billion yuan in 2023.
"Brokerage income certificates are issued with the brokerage's credit and capital as guarantee, and have higher security than wealth management products. Generally, they can obtain some upward yield elasticity on the basis of principal guarantee." An institutional person told reporters that this has become a better alternative product at a time when large-denomination bank certificates of deposit are relatively scarce.
Taking Fuling Zhacai (002507.SZ), which has a relatively high purchase frequency, as an example, the reporter sorted out multiple announcements and found that this year the company has purchased 14 securities income certificate products, with a total investment of 1.35 billion yuan. Among them, on April 30, the company announced that it had purchased 10 securities income certificate products from Shenwan Hongyuan, Southwest Securities, Haitong Securities, etc., with an investment of 950 million yuan. On February 8, the company purchased 4 securities income certificate products, with an investment of about 400 million yuan.
Enjie Co., Ltd. (002812.SZ) ranked first in terms of single purchase size. On July 2, the company announced that it would use the temporarily idle 250 million yuan of raised funds to purchase a principal-guaranteed income certificate from Huatai Securities. The product period is from July 1, 2024 to June 12, 2025, and the annualized fixed rate of return of the product is 2.2%.
It is worth noting that compared with financial management, deposits, and income certificates with an investment period of more than one year, using treasury bond reverse repurchase to obtain short-term returns is also popular among listed companies. According to Choice data, in the same period last year, only two companies subscribed to treasury bond reverse repurchases, with a total amount of 360 million yuan. Since 2024, a total of 10 companies have operated treasury bond reverse repurchases, with a cumulative investment amount of 1.484 billion yuan.
Among them, Guoguang Shares (002749.SZ) has the highest purchase frequency. According to Choice data, the company has purchased treasury bond reverse repurchase products many times this year, with a cumulative purchase amount of 200 million yuan. According to the announcement, from January 24 to January 25 this year alone, the company purchased 8 treasury bond reverse repurchases in a row, with a total amount of 50 million yuan, and an annualized yield of between 2.49% and 2.58%.
(Source: Guoguang Shares Announcement)
Corporate deposit rates fall
The reason behind the major adjustments in investment targets of listed companies is the continuous decline in deposit interest rates.
In April 2022, the central bank guided the interest rate self-discipline mechanism to establish a market-based adjustment mechanism for deposit interest rates. Since then, bank deposit rates have been lowered several times in September 2022, June 2023, September 2023, December 2023 and July 2024.
After the latest round of cuts in July this year, the listed interest rates of three-month, six-month and one-year deposits of state-owned banks were lowered to 1.05%, 1.25% and 1.35%; the listed interest rates of two-year, three-year and five-year deposits were lowered to 1.45%, 1.75% and 1.8%, and deposits across the board entered the "1 era". Joint-stock banks and small and medium-sized banks are also following suit.
(Source: Zhongtai Securities Research Report)
The interest rate reduction for public deposits of listed companies may be even greater. On April 8, the market interest rate pricing self-discipline mechanism issued the "Proposal on Prohibiting High-interest Deposit Attraction through Manual Interest Payment to Maintain the Competition Order of the Deposit Market", calling a halt to "manual interest payment" and requiring commercial banks to complete rectification by the end of April.
A banking industry insider in South China told the reporter that previously, "manual interest supplement" was generally used in corporate business, especially in cooperation with some large enterprises. The two parties had a compliant deposit agreement on the surface, but they would privately sign a "drawer agreement" to supplement the pre-agreed interest rate.
"Manual interest supplements are mainly concentrated in corporate deposits and non-bank deposits." Sun Binbin, chief fixed income analyst at Tianfeng Securities, estimated that the total amount of deposits involved in "manual interest supplements" is no less than 15 trillion yuan. Among them, corporate deposits may be 10 trillion yuan or more, and non-bank deposits may be around 5 trillion yuan or more.
Dongwu Securities analyst Chen Li believes that under this background, corporate deposits have gradually "moved", with new corporate deposits in May and June significantly lower than the same period in history, and have begun to shift to higher-yield wealth management products, money, bond funds, etc.
In the era of low interest rates, there is a "seesaw" effect between deposits and wealth management, which can be seen from the data. The "China Banking Wealth Management Market Half-Year Report (2024)" recently released by the Banking Wealth Management Registration and Custody Center shows that as of the end of June 2024, the scale of the bank wealth management market is 28.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.43% from the beginning of the year and an increase of 12.55% year-on-year.
Recently, the scale of wealth management is still growing. Wang Yifeng, chief analyst of the financial industry at Everbright Securities, said that after the cross-season, funds have been flowing back to wealth management in an orderly manner, and the scale has grown naturally. As of July 21, the scale of wealth management has increased by about 1.5 trillion yuan from the beginning of the month to around 30 trillion yuan, and is expected to remain above 30 trillion yuan in the near future.
Most institutional people believe that the trend of transferring deposits to wealth management and other products will continue in the future. Sun Binbin believes that part of the corporate deposits involved in "manual interest supplement" may be transferred to structured deposits, wealth management and money market funds, while part may continue to remain in banks.
Chen Li also analyzed in the research report that since the beginning of this year, in order to ease the pressure on bank interest rate spreads, bank deposits, including large-denomination certificates of deposit, have continued to decline in interest rates, and medium- and long-term large-denomination certificates of deposit have been gradually suspended from sale. As high-interest deposit products expire, in order to obtain stable returns and improve the efficiency of fund use, companies need to find more high-interest "substitute" products. In the current bull market of bonds, bond financial products are a better choice. Compared with money funds and monetary wealth management products, their performance is relatively better, and the risks are controllable, and the investment value is higher.
(This article comes from China Business Network)
