Wall Street still hasn’t figured out how to make much money in China.
Despite the broad market opening, the hundreds of new hires and the billions invested, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other global investment banks posted a combined loss of about 308 million yuan ($48 million) last year. Three firms eked out tiny profits from their onshore joint ventures and three had losses. By contrast, China’s investment banks rode a wave of deal-making to earn $24.4 billion, according to filings.
While the trend is promising — revenue is rising and a few banks reversed losses from previous years — the mediocre results show that Wall Street firms still need more time, talent, and even bigger investments to post meaningful earnings in the world’s second-biggest economy.