The largest capital increase in the insurance industry was approved, and AIA invested 12 billion yuan in China Post Insurance as the second largest shareholder

After nearly half a year of waiting, AIA's 12 billion yuan stake in China Post Insurance was recently approved, which is also the largest capital increase and share expansion project in China's insurance industry so far.

According to the approval issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on January 12, the registered capital of China Post Insurance increased from 21.5 billion yuan to 28.663 billion yuan, and the new registered capital was subscribed by AIA Limited (hereinafter referred to as "AIA"), and the amount of funds attracted in the transaction reached 12.033 billion yuan. After the capital increase, AIA will hold 24.99% of the shares of China Post Insurance, becoming the second largest shareholder after China Post Group.

The first financial reporter noted that at present, the official website of China Post Insurance has updated the shareholding information of AIA Insurance Co., Ltd.

According to the data, China Post Insurance was established in 2009 as a subsidiary of China Post Group. Relying on the postal network and resources, the service scope of China Post Insurance covers 22 provinces (autonomous regions and cities), 296 prefectures and cities, 1690 counties and cities, and more than 70% of the business and services are in counties and below. By the end of 2021, the total assets will exceed 400 billion yuan, and the annual operating income will reach the platform of 100 billion.

AIA has always been known for its high-quality marketer channel, does this investment in China Post Insurance indicate that AIA will also use the vast silver mail network of China Post to form a new growth point in the Chinese mainland bancassurance channel?

In fact, when AIA announced at the end of June 2021 that it would spend $12 billion to subscribe for 7.16 billion shares of China Post Insurance, AIA said: "AIA's investment in China Post Insurance will allow the Group to benefit from the expanded Chinese life insurance market opportunities and the potential of distribution channels and customer base that complement our current China strategy." ”

Soon after, in August, it was reported that AIA was exploring cooperation with China Post Group and Postal Savings Bank, and would cooperate in product distribution in appropriate markets in cities or provinces where AIA's business is located. However, AIA responded at the time that there was no further information to disclose.

McKinsey said in the research report that the establishment of medium- and long-term stable strategic cooperative relations is an important prerequisite for the "win-win" of bancassurance cooperation. As the bancassurance and insurance parties continue to improve the depth and stability of cooperation, a new development pattern of the bancassurance market has gradually formed - three models of bank holding, joint venture and strategic alliance, subverting the extensive development model of open channels and undifferentiated agent sales of traditional bancassurance channels.

AIA's participation in China Post Insurance is undoubtedly also conducive to establishing a medium- and long-term stable cooperative relationship with China Post Insurance and the China Post Group behind it. At the same time, AIA launched an expansion strategy in non-first-tier cities after Chinese mainland obtained independent legal personality, which is also in line with the sinking customers of Postal Savings Bank. However, if you want to develop postal storage customers, how to adjust the playing style of AIA to quickly adapt to different customer groups is also no small challenge.

McKinsey said that according to the successful experience of the world's leading bancassurance cooperation, no matter which of the above models is adopted, the bank and the insurance side need to grasp the five successful elements of "common product customization", "integrated customer journey", "data insight sharing", "integrated team collaboration", and "ecological scene co-creation" in order to fully release the value potential of bancassurance business.