After China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) disclosed the premium data of January this year on February 16, the premium “report cards” of five A-share listed insurance companies in January this year have been fully released.
In January 2022, The People’S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited(601319) (601319. Sh, 1339. HK), China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) (601628. Sh, 2628. HK), Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) (601318. Sh, 2318. HK), China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co.Ltd(601601) (601601. Sh, 2601. HK), New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) (601336. Sh, 1336. HK) five listed insurance companies realized a total premium income of 571961 million yuan, an increase of 1.86% year-on-year.
In terms of single insurance enterprises, except for the negative growth of China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) premium income, the total premiums of other insurance enterprises showed a positive growth trend. Specifically, The People’S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited(601319) achieved a premium income of 115.512 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.89%. This increase also led the listed insurance companies, and was the only insurance company among the five insurance companies to achieve double-digit premium growth. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) continued to be the insurance company with the largest premium income with a premium of 136.486 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 1.21%. The premium income of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co.Ltd(601601) and New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) were 76.895 billion yuan and 35.868 billion yuan respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 2.29% and 3.57%.
Generally speaking, insurance companies tend to pay more attention to scale at the beginning of the year, which belongs to the war of “insurance scale”, and gradually turn their goal to high-value business after the first quarter. Different from last year, at the beginning of 2021, affected by the switching between the old and new definitions of critical illness insurance, the sales of critical illness insurance was hot at that time, and the pre-sale premium of many teams broke the historical record. This can also be seen from the January premium data of various life insurance companies.
In general, the growth differentiation of life insurance premiums of various insurance enterprises is more obvious. The premium income of life insurance “first brother” China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) in January this year was 207.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.34%. In 2021, China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) achieved a premium income of 620 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.16%. The premium income of Ping An Life Insurance and CPIC life insurance in January this year was 98.574 billion yuan and 55.884 yuan respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 0.62% and 1.1%. In contrast, New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) premiums still increased positively in January this year, but the increase of 3.57% is far less than the double-digit increase in January last year.
PICC Life Insurance realized a premium income of 46.619 billion yuan in January this year, a year-on-year increase of 30.2%, which can be described as a bright performance. Among its premium income, the long-term insurance premium is mainly driven by single payment, the growth rate of single payment premium income is 136.6%, and the first year of regular payment premium is a negative growth. At the same time, short-term insurance premiums also showed a negative growth trend, down 29.8% year-on-year. The premium income of PICC Health Insurance was 8.561 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%, of which the premium of long-term insurance in the first year showed a downward trend, and the premium of regular renewal and short-term insurance increased by 13.8% and 77.9% year-on-year.
Gf Securities Co.Ltd(000776) analysts Chen Fu and Liu Qi believe that the darkest time on the liability side of life insurance has passed. Under the background of superimposing extremely low valuation and freezing point institutional position level, the improvement of the asset side and the switching of market style are expected to promote the repair of the life insurance sector.
In the property insurance sector, the premium income of various insurance companies continued to maintain a “warming state”. In terms of PICC Property insurance business, in addition to enterprise property insurance and other types of insurance, the premiums of auto insurance (increased by 14.5%), Italian health insurance (increased by 15.1%), agricultural insurance (increased by 16.8%) and liability insurance (increased by 16.9%) have achieved rapid growth.
It is worth noting that the credit guarantee insurance business of PICC Property Insurance, which had been declining before, saw a multiple growth in January this year, realizing a premium income of 836 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 219.1%.
Ping An Property Insurance realized a premium income of 32.787 billion yuan in January this year, a year-on-year increase of 8.21%; CPIC property insurance realized a premium income of 21.011 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.
After the Spring Festival, insurance stocks ushered in a wave of rebound, and many brokerage institutions are optimistic about insurance stocks. According to the research report released by Wang Fangchao, an analyst at Cinda securities, the current insurance sector is at the bottom of historical valuation. The short-term benefit is the improvement of the epidemic situation, and the increase of agent activity rate has a positive pull on the premium; The strong expectation of the steady growth policy has led to the stabilization and upward movement of interest rates; Real estate risk was mitigated and the investment side of insurance enterprises was improved. In the long run, there is still great pressure on the liability side, and the inflection point needs to be further observed. Under the favorable stimulus in the short term, there are still opportunities for valuation repair, but there is no clear inflection point on the liability side.
Huaxi Securities Co.Ltd(002926) believes that the insurance sector is in the three-phase superposition of institutional low allocation + oversold + asset side marginal improvement of the real estate industry, showing an oversold rebound. In particular, the preference for undervaluation since the beginning of 2022 has brought potential capital inflows to the insurance sector on the one hand, and the equity position of insurance asset management in relevant sectors on the other hand is expected to achieve good returns.
