Glonghui, April 30 | Citigroup released a report stating that the value of AIA's new business in the first quarter beat expectations, expanded gross profit, and strengthened capital management policies to provide better visibility. AIA aims to achieve a 75% dividend ratio based on net free surpluses through progressive dividends and repurchases; regularly review its capital status and return the excess capital independently. As a result, AIA announced an addition of 2 billion US dollars to the existing share repurchase plan, increasing the total amount of repurchases to 12 billion US dollars, which is expected to be completed within about 12 months. Furthermore, the bank believes that the value of AIA's new business in the first quarter increased by 31% per year at a fixed exchange rate and 27% at the real exchange rate, clearly exceeding the bank's and market expectations. It is mainly supported by a 26% increase in annualized new premiums at a fixed exchange rate, and a 2.1 percentage point increase in the profit margin of the new business value at a fixed exchange rate. However, the value of new business in all regional market segments achieved double-digit growth. In particular, the value of new business in mainland China increased 38% year-on-year, and the profit margin for new business value increased from 52.7% in the second half of last year to 54.6% in the first quarter of this year. The bank rated AIA as a “buy”, with a target price of HK$100.