The premium data of listed insurance companies in the first quarter has been released.
In January ~ March 2024, the original premium income of the six listed insurance groups of Chinese Life, Ping An of China, China Pacific Insurance, Chinese People's Insurance Company, Xinhua Insurance and Sunshine Insurance totaled 1,111.41 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.25%.
Specifically, the premium growth rate of 6 insurance companies in January ~ March showed "four rises and two declines", Sunshine Insurance ranked first with a year-on-year increase of 8.68%, Xinhua Insurance ranked last with a year-on-year decrease of 11.7%, and Chinese Life was the only listed group with a premium of more than 300 billion yuan in the first quarter.
In terms of life insurance business, the positive growth and negative growth of the six insurance companies accounted for half of the total, which shows that the pressure on relevant institutions is not small. In terms of property and casualty insurance business, the "old three" all achieved positive premium growth, among which CPIC property insurance premiums increased by 8.6% year-on-year, while Sunshine Property Insurance and Zhongan Online both achieved double-digit growth.
Life insurance business continued to come under pressure
Affected by factors such as the decrease in bancassurance single delivery, the premiums of many life insurance companies have fluctuated since the beginning of this year.
According to the newly released first-quarter premium data, six companies, namely Chinese Life, Ping An Life, Taibao Life, PICC Life, Xinhua Insurance and Sunshine Life, achieved a total of 783.44 billion yuan in original premium income of life insurance and health insurance, of which Chinese Life, Ping An of China and Sunshine Life Insurance achieved positive year-on-year growth, but Taibao Life Insurance, PICC Life Insurance and Health Insurance and Xinhua Insurance all had negative year-on-year growth, down 3.7%, 5.39% and 11.7% year-on-year respectively.
In terms of total volume, Chinese Life is far ahead with a premium income of 337.6 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 3.18%; Ping An Life Insurance and Health Insurance achieved premium income of 185.35 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year growth rate of 1.17%; and the third runner-up Taibao Life Insurance achieved a premium income of 91.69 billion yuan, and there is also a big gap between the business volume and the runner-up Ping An. In addition, PICC Life & Health, New China Insurance and Sunshine Life achieved RMB79.05 billion, RMB57.19 billion and RMB32.56 billion respectively in the first quarter.
Xinhua Insurance said in the announcement that the company's premium income in March increased significantly month-on-month, the business scale and value of individual insurance channels increased, and the premium income structure was well optimized and improved. In the first quarter, the company's business strategy focused on value growth and optimization of business structure, and the year-on-year decline in cumulative primary insurance premium income narrowed.
According to the data, Xinhua Insurance achieved original premium income of 17.6 billion yuan in March, a year-on-year decrease of 4%.
Wang Fangchao and Zhang Kaifeng, analysts of Cinda Securities, said in the research report that from the perspective of premium income in the first quarter, the year-on-year growth rate is still differentiated, but in the context of the completion of the scheduled interest rate switch and the continuous promotion of the "integration of newspapers and banks" in various channels, major insurance companies are focusing on reducing debt costs, doing a good job in asset-liability matching, and actively reducing some low-value products, and the premium income structure is expected to continue to be optimized, and is expected to help NBV grow steadily year-on-year in the first quarter. In addition, from the perspective of competing products in the same industry, the demand for life insurance is expected to continue to remain strong in the context of the reduction of the listed interest rates of commercial banks and the low volatility of long-term interest rates.
Soochow Securities believes that from the perspective of the supply side of bancassurance, in the low interest rate environment, the hidden concern of interest rate spread loss has reappeared, and the bancassurance strategy of listed insurance companies has actively chosen to adjust, and the annual plan is relatively stable, which is obviously different from the strategy of holding high and hitting high at the beginning of 2023. From the perspective of bancassurance demand, after the outlets re-signed the contract, the enthusiasm of consignment sales has been squeezed to a certain extent. However, it is worth noting that the performance of the individual insurance channel is relatively stable, and the consumer demand for early overdraft with a fixed interest rate of 3.5% has basically been digested in the fourth quarter of 2023, thanks to the balance between the good start of 2024 and the closing of the fourth quarter of 2023, the performance of new individual insurance policies and value in the first quarter of 2024 is significantly better than that of bancassurance.
Property and casualty insurance business is relatively good
Compared with the uneven life insurance business, the property insurance business of insurance companies in the first quarter was generally good.
From the perspective of premium income, the "old three" still occupy a dominant position, of which PICC property insurance is in the absolute leading position, achieving a premium income of 173.98 billion yuan, Ping An property insurance and CPIC property insurance with 79.08 billion yuan and 62.49 billion yuan respectively in the second and third place, the growth rate of the three is 3.78%, 2.75% and 8.60% respectively; although the premium income of Sunshine Property Insurance and Zhongan Online is far behind the "old three", the growth rate in the first quarter is about 18%, and the growth rate is gratifying.
Huaxi Securities believes that the recovery of auto insurance premiums is mainly driven by the recovery of auto consumption after the Spring Festival. In March, the retail sales of narrow passenger cars in the mainland increased by 6.2% year-on-year, and the cumulative increase in the first three months was 13.1% year-on-year. With the implementation of the follow-up car trade-in policy, the issuance of car purchase subsidies in various places, and the launch of a number of new cars with high attention, it is expected to further stimulate consumers' enthusiasm for car purchases, and it is expected that the annual growth rate of the company's car insurance premiums is expected to reach about 5%.
According to a research report released by Everbright Securities, the growth of property insurance premiums benefited from the joint promotion of motor insurance and non-motor insurance business. Looking ahead, some car companies and local governments have implemented corresponding "trade-in" subsidies, and the relevant departments have lifted the restrictions on the proportion of new car loans for passenger cars, which will boost automobile consumption and further increase the growth rate of motor insurance premiums, while non-motor insurance business is expected to maintain a good growth level under the promotion of policies and the gradual recovery of the economy. At the same time, as insurers continue to reduce the cost of motor insurance expenses and clear out the high-risk stock of non-motor insurance, the improvement of operating quality and efficiency will promote the comprehensive ratio to maintain a good level, especially the top insurers will show stronger underwriting profitability resilience.
Editor-in-charge: Gui Yanmin
Proofreader: Tao Qian