Zhaojin International expects that the improvement of China Life Insurance (02628) products and channel combination will support the group in orderly reducing its debt cost.
According to the Smart Finance APP, Zhongyuan International released a research report stating that it maintains a "buy" rating for China Life Insurance (02628) with a target price raised from HKD 13.7 to HKD 15.5. China Life Insurance's performance in the first half of the year was strong, with the new business value (NBV) increasing by 18.6% year-on-year. After fully adopting IFRS 9, investment income skyrocketed by 1.4 times year-on-year, driving pre-tax profit to increase by 27.6%.
The bank stated that the profit margin of the bank-insurance cooperation has significantly expanded, with the NBV profit margin increasing by 13.4 percentage points year-on-year to over 17%. Total investment assets reached 6.1 billion RMB, reaching a historical high. Looking ahead, the bank expects that the improvement of products and the combination of channels will support the group in orderly reducing its debt cost, and investment income will continue to rebound in the second half of the year on the basis of the low level of last year.
