值得关注的是，与此前险资举牌普遍聚焦交运、环保、公用事业等板块不同，此次瑞众人寿增持举牌中国中免为商贸服务企业。据了解，中国中免主要从事以免税为主的旅游零售业务,包括烟酒、香化、精品、服饰、电子产品等免税商品的批发、零售等业务。① Ruizhong Life increased its holdings of free H shares in China to 5.00%, triggering listing twice in half a month. ② The listed company was exempted as a commercial and trade service company in China, which is rare for insurance companies to be listed during the year. ③ The trend of insurance capital “sweeping” H shares is becoming more and more obvious. In the last half month, 5 H share companies have been listed by insurance capital.
Financial Services Association, August 12 (Reporter Zou Juntao) Insurance capital has been listed one after another in the Hong Kong stock market.
On August 12, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed easy data showing that Ruizhong Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ruizhong Life) increased its holdings of China's free H shares by 0.1519 million on the market on August 7. After the increase in holdings, the number of shares held by Ruizhong Life increased to 5.82 million shares, and the shareholding ratio increased from 4.87% to 5.00%. According to regulations, this increase in holdings triggers listing.
It is worth noting that unlike previous insurance capital listings, which generally focused on transportation, environmental protection, utilities, etc., Ruizhong Life increased its holdings and was exempted from being listed as a commercial and trade service enterprise in China. According to information, China Free is mainly engaged in duty-free travel retail business, including wholesale and retail of duty-free goods such as tobacco, alcohol, perfumery, clothing, and electronic products.
Furthermore, this is another time that Ruizhong Life is trading after a lapse of half a month, and they are all H shares. Insurance capital listing accelerated markedly during the year. According to incomplete statistics from the Financial Federation reporter, up to now, 11 listed companies have been listed with insurance capital, more than 9 for the whole of 2023, and there is a clear trend of insurance capital “sweeping away” H shares recently.
A rare commercial and trade service sector enterprise with insurance capital
According to easy data disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Ruizhong Life bought about 0.1519 million shares of China's free H shares on August 7. According to information, Ruizhong Life bought it at an average price of HK$54.5566 per share, involving capital of approximately HK$8.2871 million.
After this purchase, Ruizhong Life held 5% of China's free H share capital, triggering the listing. However, as of the press release, Ruizhong Life has not officially issued an information disclosure notice regarding the licensing exemption in China.
It is worth noting that Ruizhong Life Insurance is exempt from the commercial and trade service sector in China this time, which is different from the industry favored by insurance companies in the past. According to public reports, during the year, insurance companies mostly focused on industries such as transportation, environmental protection, and utilities.
Take Great Wall Life Insurance, which was the most active in listing this year. During the year, the company listed listed companies such as Green Power Environmental Protection, Chengfa Environmental Protection, Qingang Co., Ltd., Jiangnan Water, and Gan-Guangdong Expressway. Great Wall Life Insurance said that the company conducts in-depth research on infrastructure investment, livelihood investment, and energy sector investment safety assets, lays out ports, high-speed companies, listed energy, water, and environmental protection companies, and uses ESG and new quality productivity as key investment directions.
In addition, Huaguang Huaneng, which was listed by Zijin Financial Insurance during the year, Huadian International Electric Power Co., Ltd., Huaneng International Power Co., Ltd., which was listed by Taibao Life, and Longyuan Electric Power, which was listed by Ruizhong Life Insurance, are also energy sector companies.
On August 3, the State Council issued “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as “Opinions”), proposing six key tasks, including exploring basic consumption potential and stimulating improved consumption vitality, and introducing support policies specifically for social service sectors such as catering, lodging, entertainment and tourism.
According to industry analysts, “Policies favorable to service consumption have been introduced, and attention is being paid to the structural economy.” CITIC Construction Investment Securities pointed out that the “Opinion” will stimulate improved consumption vitality such as culture and entertainment, tourism, sports, education and training, and housing services. Huatai Securities said that the introduction of the special policy is expected to boost market confidence and drive the social service sector's prosperity and valuation recovery; based on the medium to long term, supply-side quality upgrades are expected to leverage incremental demand and accelerate industry integration, and the current bottom-up opportunities for leading positions are highlighted.
Recently, China China Free released its 2024 semi-annual performance report, showing that during the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 31.265 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.81%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 3.288 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.94%.
However, during the reporting period, the gross margin of the company's main business was 32.94%, up 2.62 percentage points year on year. Among them, the gross margin of the main business in the second quarter was 33.29%, up 0.82 percentage points year on year, up 0.59 percentage points from month to month, and the gross margin of the company's main business continued to improve.
Commenting on the semi-annual report data, Wu Jincao's team of Dongwu Trading Company pointed out that China Free's market position is stable. In the medium to long term, China Free is optimistic that China Free will benefit from the city's duty-free shop policy and the gradual recovery of outbound travel as a leading travel retailer, and benefit from a relatively high rate of industry growth under the consumer boom. Based on pressure from duty-free sales on the outlying islands of Hainan, China's free profit expectations were lowered, and the “buy” rating was maintained.
The trend of insurance capital “sweeping” H shares is becoming more and more obvious
According to incomplete statistics, up to now, 11 AH stock listed companies have obtained insurance listings during the year, and the frequency of listing has increased compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the Financial Services Association reporter noticed that unlike in the first half of the year, most of the companies listed were A-shares, the recent trend of insurance capital “sweeping away goods” for H shares is becoming more and more obvious.
In addition to listing China's free H shares, Ruizhong Life also just listed Longyuan Electric Power's H shares last month. On July 26, Ruizhong Life announced on its official website that the company purchased 5.26 million H shares of Longyuan Electric Power on July 22, involving capital of about HK$39.1933 million. After participating in the above listing, the company held 165.895 million H shares of Longyuan Electric Power, accounting for 5.00% of its H share capital.
Furthermore, on July 31, Great Wall Life announced the purchase of 1 million shares of Green Dynamics Environmental Protection H shares. After increasing its holdings, it held a total of 70.15 million shares, accounting for 5.03% of the total share capital of listed companies, triggering the listing. Green Power Environmental Protection announced that after this change in equity, Great Wall Life will not rule out the possibility of continuing to increase the shares of listed companies within the next 12 months.
Almost at the same time as Great Wall Life Insurance, Taibao Life also announced the listing of two Hong Kong stock listed companies, Huadian International and Huaneng International. According to the announcement, Taibao Group, in conjunction with several of its subsidiaries Taibao Life Insurance, Taibao Financial Insurance, Taibao Health Insurance, Pacific Anxin Agricultural Insurance, and Taibao Asset, purchased H-share shares of listed companies Huadian International and Huaneng International through Hong Kong Stock Connect. Taibao Asset acted as the trustee manager.
According to information, prior to this listing, the above related parties and co-actors held a total of 85.62 million shares and 234 million shares of Huadian International and Huaneng International, each accounting for 4.99% and 4.98% of the H share capital of the two listed companies. After the increase in holdings was completed, the above related parties and actors all held 5.00% of Huadian International and Huaneng International H shares.
According to incomplete statistics, 5 H-share listed companies have been listed for insurance in the last half month.
According to Huachuang Securities, insurance capital has experienced two waves of listing, in 2015 and 2020, respectively. Among them, in 2020, a number of undervalued individual stocks appeared in A and H shares, driving the low level of insurance capital. In this listing boom, the industry summary was mainly driven by leading insurers. The Hong Kong stock strategy was highlighted.
