(Yicai) March 17 -- The Shanghai Stock Exchange has suspended the review of Chinese brokerage Xiangcai’s merger with online financial data service provider Shanghai DZH via a share swap because some of the required data has expired and needs updating, both firms said in separate statements on March 15.

The valuation data used for the transaction has already expired and needs to be updated, Harbin-based Xingcai said. The financial data will also expire at the end of this month, and work to update those figures is currently underway.

The suspension will not have any major negative impact on the merger, Xiangcai said. Xiangcai and its intermediary institutions are pushing ahead with updating the valuation data, financials and application materials and will resubmit the updated documents to the Shanghai bourse as soon as possible and apply to restart the review without delay.

Xiangcai and Shanghai-based DZH both suspended trading of their stocks in the middle of March last year as they planned a major asset restructuring. About six months later, the merger plan was unveiled. DZH said in October 2025 that the Shanghai Stock Exchange had accepted the share swap merger application for review.

DZH has been running at a loss in recent years, and is bracing for a net loss of between CNY34 million (USD4.9 million) and CNY50 million last year, according to its earnings forecast. However, this is a significant improvement from the net loss of CNY200 million it logged in 2024.

By contrast, Xiangcai is witnessing a surge in earnings. The company said it expects its net profit to soar more than five-fold last year from the previous year to CNY550 million (USD79.8 million). The strong growth was driven by the firm’s wholly-owned subsidiary Xiangcai Securities, whose brokerage, credit, investment advisory, wealth management and proprietary businesses all performed very well, boosting overall profits, Xiangcai said.

Editor: Kim Taylor