China International Capital Corp

On July 31, 1995, CICC was incorporated by China Construction Bank, Morgan Stanley, China National Investment and Guaranty Co Ltd, GIC, and the Mingly Corporation, as the first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank. At the time of CICC's incorporation, China Construction Bank and Morgan Stanley were its largest shareholders, with 42.5% and 35% of interests, respectively.

In 1997, CICC established its first overseas subsidiary in Hong Kong, through which CICC became the first Chinese investment bank conducting securities underwriting business in Hong Kong. In 1997, CICC completed its first overseas initial public offering project, the IPO of China Mobile on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which marked the beginning of the restructuring and overseas listing of large state-owned enterprises directly under the State Council of China. It was also the largest IPO in Asia as well as the largest IPO of China-based companies ever up until the end of 1997.

In 2004, China Construction Bank transferred its equity interest to China Jianyin Investment, which later transferred that to China Central Huijin, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Investment Corporation. In 2010, Morgan Stanley sold its holdings to TPG, KKR, GIC and Great Eastern. CICC established its FICC division, and was one of the earliest investment banks to conduct fixed income business in China.

In 2015, CICC was converted into a joint stock company with limited liability whose top three shareholders were Huijin, GIC and TPG. In November 2015, CICC completed its own IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In 2016 CICC acquired China Investment Securities from Central Huijin in an all-share deal.

In 2017, CICC acquired a majority stake (50+%) in US KraneShares, a leading exchange-traded fund provider that focuses on Chinese listed companies, with its biggest fund (KWEB) focused on Chinese Internet companies. In 2017, giant Chinese internet company, Tencent acquired a 5% stake in CICC.

On 4 January 2023, Bloomberg News reported that CICC was cutting travel perks for its senior bankers as part of the policy in line of the common prosperity agenda promoted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In May 2024, Bloomberg News reported CICC was preparing to demote some of its senior staff and cut their salaries, and create a new performance-rating plan for its bankers; 5% of its employees would be in the top group, 45% in the second group, 20% in the third group, 20% in the fourth group, and 10% in the bottom group. Those in the fourth group would get a small salary cut while those in the bottom group would be demoted a full rank. It also reported the base salaries of CICC bankers in mainland China would be cut by up to 25%. Bloomberg News reported in July 2024 that since the start of Xi's common prosperity drive, CICC has moved from a more market-based vision and "cast aside the hard-charging ways of Wall Street", following one closer that of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It wrote that one-third of CICC employees were now CCP members.