(Yicai) Sept. 6 -- A Chinese analyst has attracted much online attention after leaving the Hangzhou-based brokerage where he worked to set up a new business in Africa amid widespread salary cuts in China’s securities industry.

Information about Shi Yi, former deputy director of Zheshang Securities' research institute and its metals and new materials chief analyst, is no longer available in the firm’s internal address book, an insider told Yicai.

The online chatter about Shi began after he wrote on WeChat Moments that he had received a Nigerian residence permit and had opened a makeup company, Beauty Routine Cosmetics, in the African nation on Aug. 30. He also posted photos of the firm’s interior decoration and his new business cards.

Yicai phoned the number on the business cards, but the call could not be connected.

Shi has a master’s degree from New York University and over 10 years of research and investment experience in the non-ferrous metals and auto industries. He obtained a securities investment advisory qualification at Haitong Securities in July 2012 and moved to Zheshang in October 2022.

Workers in China’s securities industry have seen steep cuts in their pay this year, triggered by a decline in brokerage earnings following a slump in work on initial public offerings in the Chinese mainland since the start of this year due to beefed up regulatory oversight.

Staff remuneration at 43 listed Chinese brokerages fell 12 percent to CNY74.5 billion (USD10.5 billion) in the first half of this year from a year earlier, while nearly 80 percent cut average wages, according to their financial reports.

Zheshang, where Shi worked, slashed pay by 25 percent to CNY1.1 billion (USD155.1 million) after its net profit dropped 14 percent to CNY784 million (USD111 million) on a 5 percent drop in revenue to CNY8 billion, the firm's first-half earnings report showed.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev