Overall: the original premium income of listed insurance companies in December: Life Insurance + 0.66% year-on-year, property insurance + 19.25% year-on-year
December: the original premium income of life insurance business of listed insurance enterprises (TPL + Ping An Life Insurance + Guoshou + Xinhua + Taiping Life Insurance + PICC Life Insurance) totaled 96.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of + 0.66%; The original premium income of property insurance business (PICC + Ping An Property + CPIC + Taiping property) totaled 84.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of + 19.25%.
From January to December: the original premium income of life insurance business (CPIC + Ping An Life + Guoshou + Xinhua + Taiping Life + PICC Life) of listed insurance enterprises accumulated 1695.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of – 0.11%, and the original premium income of property insurance business (PICC + Ping An + PICC + Taiping) accumulated 899 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of + 0.55%.
Life insurance: CPIC life insurance increased the most by + 41.88% year-on-year in December, and CPIC life insurance increased the most by + 3.0% year-on-year from January to December
December: TPL 8.3 billion yuan (YoY + 41.88%), Ping’an Life 40.4 billion yuan (YoY – 4.50%), China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) 26.6 billion yuan (YoY – 0.37%), New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) 8.4 billion yuan (YoY + 20.41%), Taiping Life 8.1 billion yuan (YoY + 0.92%), PICC Life 4.5 billion yuan (YoY – 22.67%).
January December: TPL 209.6 billion yuan (YoY + 0.55%), Ping An Life 457 billion yuan (YoY – 4.00%), China Life Insurance Company Limited(601628) 620 billion yuan (YoY + 1.16%), New China Life Insurance Company Ltd(601336) 163.5 billion yuan (YoY + 2.48%), TPL 148.7 billion yuan (YoY + 3.00%), PICC Life 96.8 billion yuan (YoY + 0.69%).
Property insurance: the highest year-on-year increase of PICC was + 30.37% in December, and the highest year-on-year increase of PICC was + 3.8% from January to December
December: PICC Property Insurance 43.2 billion yuan (YoY + 30.37%), Ping An Property Insurance 26.7 billion yuan (YoY + 14.18%), CPIC property insurance 13 billion yuan (YoY + 771%), and Taiping property insurance 1.9 billion yuan (YoY – 24.15%).
From January to December: PICC Property Insurance 448.4 billion yuan (YoY + 3.79%), Ping An Property Insurance 270 billion yuan (YoY – 5.53%), CPIC property insurance 153.1 billion yuan (YoY + 3.35%), and Taiping property insurance 27.5 billion yuan (YoY – 2.13%).
2021: negative growth in life insurance and positive growth in property insurance. Life insurance faces four pressures: 1) weak insurance terminal demand; 2) Agents continue to fall off, and the effectiveness of channel reform remains to be seen for some time; 3) The product competitiveness of listed insurance enterprises is slightly insufficient, and the supply and demand are mismatched; 4) Huimin insurance and other alternative products squeeze out the market share of serious illness insurance and medical insurance. TPL’s premium in 2021 was + 3.0% year-on-year, with the highest increase among listed insurance companies and good performance. Ping An Life’s premium in 2021 was – 4% year-on-year, the only listed insurance company with negative growth. Driven by the high monthly growth rate from October to December, property insurance maintained a positive growth of + 0.55% year-on-year.
Investment suggestion: the reform of life insurance channels is still ongoing. Different reform strategies and concentration of companies may lead to differentiation of performance. We are optimistic about: 1) Taiping, which implements a more proactive strategy, has better premium growth performance than its peers in 2021; 2) The investment side is expected to improve and the rate of return on investment gradually picks up, and firmly promote the Taibao of reform. At present, Taiping / ping an n-taibao a2021ep / EV are 0.19x/0.61x/0.52x respectively, the valuations are at the lowest in history, and the configuration cost performance is prominent.
Risk tips: agents continue to fall off, terminal demand continues to be weak, long-term interest rates decline, etc.
