The veteran returned.
Huang Yong, a veteran who has joined Ping An for nearly 30 years and has experienced many investment subsidiaries of Ping An, was officially approved as the chairman of Ping an asset management on January 30 this year.
2022 is the first year of the formal implementation of the new asset management regulations. In the era of large asset management, how can insurance asset management companies compete with other wealth management institutions? In this year’s complex and changeable environment, can insurance funds still win by “stability”? Can ping an asset management with a management scale of more than 4 trillion still “dance with elephants”? With these questions, a few days ago, a reporter from the China Securities Journal interviewed Huang Yong, chairman of Ping an asset management, who took up his new post.
Huang Yong said that asset management is an industry of slow work and meticulous work, which needs to be done for a long time. It takes ten years to grind a sword, adhere to doing long-term and correct things, and become a friend of time.
leverage to increase the scale of third-party business
The transitional period of the new regulations on asset management has ended. According to Huang Yong, the rectification of the new regulations on asset management is progressing smoothly in the insurance asset management industry. Ping an asset management has completed the corresponding rectification according to the regulatory requirements.
For the industry, the new asset management regulations bring not only rectification, but also the opportunity to compete with other wealth management institutions on the same starting line. “At present, cooperation between different institutions is still greater than competition, because we are still in the stage of rapid growth of residents’ financial needs. China’s wealth management market has huge space and everyone has an incremental market to do. At this time, there is actually not much competition.” Huang Yong explained.
In the large asset management market, insurance asset management has its obvious advantages, including long-term insurance funds, large scale, long-term absolute income acquisition ability, relatively wide investment range and so on. The unique advantages determine that insurance asset management will occupy a place in the market. Specifically, when it comes to ping an asset management, Huang Yong believes that the main business of insurance asset management is to serve insurance funds. “Maintaining and increasing the value of insurance funds is our first mission. On this basis, if we have spare power, we should participate in the wealth management market and provide good services for third-party funds.”
According to the data, by the end of 2021, the asset management scale of Ping an asset management was 4.05 trillion yuan, and the third-party business scale was 512.1 billion yuan, accounting for 13% of the total scale.
“We have a relatively long-term goal and hope to gradually increase the proportion of third-party business. In addition to serving large institutional investors outside China, the way of participation also includes participating in the third pillar pension products in the future and cooperation with other peers, such as providing bottom configuration products for bank financial management. At present, 80% of bank financial management companies are our customers.” Huang Yong further said.
Increasing the proportion of third-party business means that Ping an asset management is accelerating marketization. The industry believes that under the background of the accelerated development of China’s high net worth customer wealth management market, insurance asset management institutions actively export products and investment capacity to the wealth management market, which will help to expand the scale of third-party business and bring new profit growth points.
Huang Yong said that the company is still studying and discussing whether to vigorously develop to C business. It is more likely to cooperate with peer institutions to achieve the effect of B2C by launching joint products or acting as investment advisers of financial products. “We are a to B company. If we do to C business directly, it is a more complex system and we need to make some preparations in advance.”
rely on “stability” to win
This year’s investment environment is complex and changeable, and insurance funds should keep the risk bottom line. As soon as Huang Yongfu took office, he established an early warning mechanism for credit risk – Eagle Eye plan in Ping an asset management.
It is reported that Ping an asset management will regularly scan the position assets, and the subject matter with potential risks will be included in the eagle eye plan, and then the risk control will be responsible for the disposal. It is hoped that with this tool, the risk assets will be disposed of three months in advance. “After the implementation of this plan, the effect is very good. Most risks can be disposed of in advance, and the loss rate will be relatively small.” Huang Yong introduced.
“In terms of methodology, we always advocate doing the right thing for a long time. In the complex international China environment, some things remain unchanged. For example, many Chinese demand is stable.” carbon neutral “still has great support and investment in relevant industries, so its fundamentals are still good.” Huang Yong said.
Huang Yong said bluntly that he has just performed his duties and coincided with the most complex investment environment. His philosophy is always to do the right thing for a long time. “If you want to be right in the long term, the premise is that you must live in the short term. Only if you live can you have the opportunity to prove that you are right in the long term. The most important thing in the short term is to guard against big risks.”
China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) is the case of Ping an asset management’s long-term investment philosophy. After the market crash in 2015, Ping an asset management bucked the trend and participated in China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) fixed growth, becoming one of China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) top ten shareholders China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) is the largest listed clean energy company in China and a leader in the global hydropower industry.
According to the data, since its listing in 2003, China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) has accumulated cash dividends of about 124171 billion yuan, and has implemented cash dividends 18 times, with a dividend rate of 57.19%. As the China Yangtze Power Co.Ltd(600900) major shareholder, Ping an asset management has not only made a lot of profits, but also practiced the ESG investment philosophy.
brings fresh water to the real economy
As an important institutional investor in China’s capital market, insurance asset management is duty bound to serve the real economy and support national construction. Since the “double carbon goal” was put forward, insurance funds have also actively participated in ESG investment to promote “carbon neutralization and carbon peak”.
Huang Yong said that Ping an asset management understood the concept of ESG earlier and touched it when overseas top sovereign funds entrusted companies to invest in Chinese bonds in 2014. Since 2019, with Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China Ltd(601318) joining the United Nations responsible investment principles Organization (hereinafter referred to as “UN PRI”) as the asset owner, Ping an asset management has further deepened its understanding of ESG. In its view, it is very necessary for insurance institutions to carry out ESG investment.
“At the level of asset management companies, we have been making continuous green investment, with a new green investment of 26.6 billion yuan in 2021 alone.” Huang Yong revealed that two ESG products (one fixed income and one equity) are under internal planning. Meanwhile, Ping an asset management also has the idea of joining unpri as an investment manager. At present, the company is reorganizing its internal processes according to the standards of UN PRI members.
It is reported that unpri is an international non-profit organization supported by the United Nations and the most influential responsible investment organization in the world. Its ESG investment has been widely recognized by world-renowned large asset owners and asset management companies.
In addition to ESG investment, Huang Yong, an investment veteran, also has his own ideas and judgments on the current hot pension investment and the Beijing stock exchange. In the future, if the regulatory policy is liberalized, some insurance asset management companies with comprehensive investment capacity and good risk control can carry out the pilot of Pension Asset management products to help the construction of the third pillar of pension.
As for the Beijing stock exchange, Huang Yong believes that from the new third board to the exchange, the establishment of the Beijing stock exchange is conducive to the equity investment of insurance funds, “Insurance funds can always invest in PE (equity investment) and VC (venture capital), but the industry as a whole has less investment in VC, more PE investment, and the effect is good. We can regard the Beijing stock exchange, which focuses on special and new enterprises, as the primary pool of PE and VC, and the information disclosure in this market is more transparent. I believe a number of enterprises will make use of the platform of Beijing stock exchange to become bigger and stronger.”
