China's Taiping (00966) return profit increased 90.3% in the first half of the year: value transformation and quality improvement, investment restoration and ecological collaboration opened up room for growth

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on August 26, China's Taiping (00966) held a 2026 interim results conference in Hong Kong. During the performance period, China Taiping achieved profit attributable to shareholders of HK$12.883 billion, up 90.3% year on year; insurance service revenue of HK$58.926 billion, up 5.3% year on year; and insurance service performance of HK$12.876 billion, up 4.5% year on year. By the end of June, the Group's total assets exceeded HK$2.1 trillion, and the equity attributable to common shareholders reached HK$103.638 billion, up 9.1% and 8.9% respectively from the end of last year.

Judging from the core operating framework of insurance companies, the current results were not only driven by investment income: the margin of contract services reached HK$231,419 billion, an increase of 6.8% over the end of last year; the total embedded value attributable to shareholders per share rose to HK$63.33, an increase of 8.6%. Investment restoration unleashed profit elasticity, and insurance service performance, long-term value reserves, and capital strength increased simultaneously, forming a chassis for sustainable performance.

1. Life insurance value transformation has entered a stage of “quantitative and qualitative progress”

Life insurance remains China Taiping's most important source of profit and value.

In the first half of the year, insurance service revenue from the life insurance business was HK$33.951 billion, up 5.3% year on year; insurance service performance was HK$11.593 billion, up 6.0% year on year; profit after tax was HK$16.682 billion, up 101.5% year on year. Improved return on investment contributes to profit flexibility, and continued growth in insurance service performance indicates that the main business is operating steadily.

According to the RMB standard, Taiping Life's original premiums increased 2.0% year on year, new premiums increased 10.6%, and the new business value reached 6.268 billion yuan, up 1.4% year on year. In the context of the industry's shift to value management, it is particularly important for new business values to maintain positive growth. The management clearly stated that the phased impact of the dividend insurance transformation on the value rate and growth rate of the new business is based on balance and liability matching and long-term safety pads; the sensitivity of the new business value to adverse changes in interest rates and equity markets continues to decline, and the business's ability to withstand fluctuations is increasing.

The transformation of the product structure is also moving from a single concentration to balance. The share of dividend insurance in the first year of long-term insurance premiums reached 97.8%, up 10.7 percentage points from the previous year; at the same time, management revealed that the company is promoting product diversification, diversification of term structures, and refinement of interest rate management. 71 products were launched in the first half of the year. The proportion of incremental whole life insurance products decreased by 7.2 percentage points year on year, the share of annuity insurance increased by 7.6 percentage points, and the share of three-year products decreased. Optimizing the combination of long-term, short-term payment and annuity products helps to meet customer needs while improving the longevity of debt and income matching.

Team transformation also showed quality improvements. Taiping Life promoted the “four modernization of teams” around rejuvenation, professionalization, and performance optimization. The average age of the team was optimized, the activity rate increased by 8.9 percentage points, and the monthly production capacity of active workers increased 18.3% year over year; by the end of June, the number of individual agents reached 172,000, an increase of 5,299 over the end of last year. The premium continuation rates for personal agents for 13 and 25 months were 98.9% and 98.5%, respectively.

The service margin for life insurance contracts reached HK$230.71 billion, providing strong reserves for future profit release. Regarding the actuarial assumptions that the market is concerned about, the company emphasizes that it will balance risk appetite, industry comparability, and annual continuity, and evaluate and optimize in due course under the premise of prudence. This arrangement helps to avoid short-term indicator fluctuations from masking long-term value, and also reserves room for subsequent value release.

2. Integrating reporting and banking, empowering pension finance and technology to reshape growth methods

At the press conference, management viewed the “integration of reporting and banking” as an important opportunity to promote the high-quality development of the industry. The impact is not only about cost restrictions, but also on encouraging the industry to shift from competing for cost and scale to competing for services and efficiency. China Taiping combines policy requirements with its own transformation to expand the supply of guaranteed and long-term products, enhance the sales force's professional service capabilities, improve customer experience through technological and operational system upgrades, and reduce dependence on front-end cost investment.

Pension finance is becoming a landing point for product, service, and ecological collaboration. The group has formed a three-in-one service layout for large-scale institutional pension, urban apartment pension, and home pension. Five self-built high-end pension communities are operating steadily. Taiping Life launched a pilot home pension project in the first half of this year. As of the first half of the year, the balance of assets managed by the second pillar annuity was about RMB 767 billion, the total premium of the third-pillar commercial insurance annuity was about RMB 23 billion, and the asset management balance at the end of the commercial pension period was about RMB 26.3 billion; the self-built pension community had close to 3,000 elderly residents, serving more than 1,300 elderly people of Hong Kong nationality. The linkage of insurance, medical care and health care resources is creating stronger customer stickiness.

Digital construction is accelerating the shift from “tool application” to management empowerment. The Group continues to promote the construction of a “1+1+4" artificial intelligence ecosystem to accelerate the implementation of intelligent applications in business, operation, risk control and other fields. Taiping Life promotes intelligent medical insurance services, and Taiping Financial Insurance launches AI image loss determination for car insurers. Faced with extreme weather, Taiping Financial Insurance put disaster prevention ahead of the curve. As of August 24, it had investigated more than 60,000 risk items and pushed warning information more than 610,000 times, achieving a loss reduction of about 70 million yuan; non-car insurance completed compensation payments in 12 minutes and 11 seconds, and paid 150 million yuan in compensation to 13,000 customers. The combination of risk management and customer service has further enhanced operational resilience.

3. Invest in repair and repair to release flexibility, and maintain a stable underwriting and capital base

The investment side is a direct catalyst for the high increase in profits in the current period. In the first half of the year, the Group achieved total investment income of HK$47.952 billion, up 120.5% year on year; net investment income of HK$26.215 billion, up 3.7% year on year; and total annualized return on investment rose to 5.21%, up 2.53 percentage points from the same period last year. While total earnings have recovered significantly, net investment income has continued to grow, indicating that earnings improvements are not entirely dependent on short-term valuation fluctuations.

The investment portfolio continues to reflect long-term funding characteristics. Fixed income assets accounted for 80.2%, and equity investments accounted for 18.9%; the return on equity investment in the domestic FVPL secondary market reached 14.5%, outperforming the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 full income index by 5.9 percentage points. Management revealed that the Group will continue to strengthen the steady allocation of major asset classes, detailed account matching and differentiated assessments. Equity investment will adhere to the “dividend plus technology” dumbbell strategy, and focus on strategic emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, high-end equipment and new energy while consolidating the profit base with dividend assets.

The underwriting side maintains diversified support. Taiping Financial Insurance's comprehensive cost ratio for the first half of the year was 98.0%, maintaining underwriting profit even as extreme weather increased and payout rates increased; profit after overseas financial insurance tax increased by 40.8%, while Taiping Hong Kong, Taiping Macau, Taiping Singapore, and Taiping Indonesia's comprehensive cost rates were 90.8%, 83.4%, 90.0%, and 95.0%, respectively. The reinsurance business's income from insurance services increased by 9.6%, insurance service performance increased by 43.7%, and the comprehensive cost ratio was 96.2%. Professional reinsurance capabilities were further demonstrated.

The asset management business has become the new stabilizer. In the first half of the year, management fee revenue increased by 12.2%, profit after tax increased by 166.2%; the scale of insurance fund management within the group increased by 11.4%, and assets managed by third parties increased by 3.7%. Meanwhile, Taiping Life Insurance, and Taiping Pension's comprehensive solvency adequacy ratios were 215%, 240%, and 212%, respectively. The Group's comprehensive financial leverage ratio fell from 23.2% to 21.9%, and the capital safety margin continued to be maintained.

Standing at the beginning of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, China Taiping proposed building a “world-class insurance group with the most value growth and customer trust”, and listed value creation, functional role, customer trust, digital intelligence construction, and risk control compliance as five goals. Relying on the three major ecosystems of healthcare, financial technology, and shared services, it opened up the full chain of “insurance protection+customer service+technology empowerment”. At the same time, management reiterated that it will adhere to a long-term sustainable dividend policy and share development results with shareholders on the premise of meeting regulatory and sufficient capital requirements.

Overall, in the first half of the year, China Taiping formed multiple supports of “a stable main insurance business, restoration of investment income, long-term value accumulation, and sufficient capital safety”. Short-term profits will still be affected by capital market fluctuations, but core indicators such as new life insurance business value, contract service margin, financial insurance comprehensive cost ratio, third party asset management scale and solvency have jointly outlined a clear path for the company from scale growth to quality growth, and from a single product to a comprehensive ecosystem.