(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- China Galaxy Securities and China International Capital Corporation, two brokers controlled by Central Huijin Investment, the domestic investment arm of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, rebutted a rumor that they will merge.

China Galaxy has not received any information from government departments, regulatory agencies, or controlling shareholders and actual controllers that it will combine with CICC, it said today. CICC issued a similar statement.

Market rumors about a merger began to circulate after the pair announced board changes on Oct. 22. Chen Liang resigned as director and chairman of China Galaxy and was moved to CICC to replace Shen Rujun as chairman and legal representative after he quit.

If they were to be forged into one entity, the highly complementary businesses of China Galaxy and CICC would create an industry behemoth.

China Galaxy confirmed with its controlling shareholder China Galaxy Financial Holdings and its actual controller Central Huijin Investment, which is also the largest shareholder of CICC, that they did not plan a merger or have any other undisclosed information about major matters, it noted.

Shares of China Galaxy [SHA: 601881] rose 0.2 percent to CNY13.02 (USD1.79) apiece in Shanghai today, while its Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG: 6881] gained 0.9 percent to HKD4.29 (55 US cents).  CICC [SHA: 601995/HKG: 3908] added 0.8 percent to CNY39.21 (USD5.40) and 1.5 percent to HKD13.34 (USD1.71).

Editor: Martin Kadiev