As Chinese companies expand overseas and Beijing pushes to build globally competitive investment banks, the country’s leading brokerages are increasingly looking beyond the mainland market for growth, accelerating efforts to expand their international operations.Citic Securities, China’s most profitable brokerage and until recently its largest by assets, became the latest example on Thursday when it unveiled plans to raise 16 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) through a new H-share placement to its parent company, Citic Financial Holdings, with all proceeds earmarked for overseas operations.The deal marks the largest equity fundraising by a Chinese brokerage since 2022.AdvertisementThe previous record-holder was also Citic. In…