CITIC Group was established in 1979 by Rong Yiren with the support of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Initially, the company was called China International Trust Investment Corporation, hence the current name CITIC. Since its inception, CITIC Group has been a pilot project for economic reforms and China’s opening to the outside world. It blazed a new path to China’s modernization by attracting and utilizing foreign capital, introducing innovative processes and advanced technologies in many fields, and adopting advanced practice in operation and management.
2002 marked a milestone in the company’s history. The group transformed and changed its name from China International Trust Investment Corporation to the acronym CITIC, becoming a state-authorized investment institution. In 2011, China CITIC Group Corporation became a fully state-owned company called China Citic Group Corporation Limited (abbreviated as CITIC Group) and founded China CITIC Limited (abbreviated as CITIC Limited). Another milestone followed in 2014 when CITIC Group injected 100 % of its assets into CITIC Pacific, a Hong Kong listed company, and thus entered a foreign capital market.
Today, CITIC Group is an important state-owned multinational conglomerate with a wide range of businesses covering finance, energy and resources, manufacturing, engineering contracting, real estate and others. In 2021, CITIC Group ranked 115th on Fortune Global 500, moving up 300 spots compared to its first ranking in 2009.
CITIC Limited (SEHK: 00267) is one of the largest constituents of the Hang Seng Index on Hong Kong Exchange. As of 31 December 2019, CITIC Limited had total assets of HK$8,290 billion and total ordinary shareholders’ funds of over HK$591.5 billion.