Perseverance
Source: Bowang Finance
Wang Jianlin, who was under pressure on the capital chain, finally chose to "survive with a broken arm".
The once bold words, "I have great expectations for the financial group, and I think that the greatest value of Wanda in the future is this sector", turned into a bubble at this moment.
As the sector with the greatest future value in Wang Jianlin's mouth, Centennial Life was abandoned at this time.
On May 8, according to the two approvals disclosed by the Dalian Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Regulation, it was agreed that Centennial Life would change its shareholders and registered capital. It is reported that Centennial Life increased its registered capital by 110 million yuan, from 7.7948 billion yuan to 7.9048 billion yuan.
At the same time, Dalian Rongda, a subsidiary of Wang Jianlin, transferred 800 million shares of Centennial Life Insurance to Dalian Jinyun. It is worth mentioning that after Dalian Jinyun acquired 800 million shares of Centennial Life, the shareholding ratio reached 11.55%, exceeding Dalian Wanda's 11.39%.
According to public information, Dalian Jinyun is a professional platform for the investment, operation and management of municipal state-owned financial capital, which was officially unveiled on August 18, 2022. This means that Dalian Wanda officially lost the largest shareholder seat of Centennial Life and retreated to the second largest shareholder.
As the first Chinese-funded life insurance legal entity in Northeast China, Centennial Life has had a bleak life in recent years, with the chairman's position vacant for 3 years, its performance suffering from "Waterloo", and its comprehensive risk rating declining.
01
It is insolvent and is classified as a solvency company
It is reported that Centennial Life was established in June 2009 and is jointly funded by 16 shareholders including Dalian Wanda and Oriental Asset Management. In the past ten years of development, Centennial Life has adopted a diversified sales development strategy, successively established parallel development of individual insurance, bancassurance, innovative sales, telephone sales, consulting marketing and other business channels, Internet finance and health management services in multiple fields of innovation and development, has opened 21 provincial branches across the country, with a total of more than 390 branches at all levels, and the strategic layout of major provinces and cities across the country has been basically completed.
As the first Chinese-funded life insurance legal entity in Northeast China, Centennial Life has continued to make profits. From 2015 to 2021, the net profit of Centennial Life was 32 million yuan, 207 million yuan, 351 million yuan, 697 million yuan, 223 million yuan, 802 million yuan and 588 million yuan respectively.
However, the good times did not last long, and in 2022, Centennial Life's performance suffered a "Waterloo", with a net loss of 2.71 billion yuan. Among them, under the circumstance of limited value transformation and business expansion, the premium income and scale premium income of Centennial Life's original insurance have declined, and the market share has also declined. At the same time, the solvency adequacy ratio has been insufficient, and the business expansion of Centennial Life Insurance has also been limited to a certain extent. As a result, in 2022, Centennial Life achieved a premium income of 52.916 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.87% from the previous year; The scale premium income was 58.233 billion yuan, a decrease of 5.05% over last year.
On the other hand, since 2022, the floating loss and net loss of available-for-sale financial assets have led to a significant decline in the scale of Centennial Life's owner's equity. The core and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratios are close to the regulatory red line, and there is great pressure on capital replenishment.
As a result of various unfavorable indicators, the comprehensive risk rating results of Centennial Life in the four quarters of 2022 are all C, which is a company whose solvency does not meet the standard.
According to the latest solvency report, as of the end of the first quarter of 2023, the revenue of Centennial Life Insurance business was 24.820 billion yuan, an increase of 10.59% year-on-year, but the net profit in the same period was -1.049 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.6%; The consolidated solvency adequacy ratio at the end of the period was 102.59% and the core solvency adequacy ratio was 64.43%, which decreased compared with the previous quarter.
According to regulatory standards, the comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio of insurance companies, including Centennial Life, shall not be less than 100%, and the core solvency adequacy ratio shall not be less than 50%. The data is the best proof that the solvency of Centennial Life is about to trigger the regulatory red line.
Perhaps deliberately avoiding it, Centennial Life has not disclosed its solvency report for four consecutive quarters so far.
02
The commander will be replaced, and the holdings will be reduced and cashed out in order to alleviate the financial pressure
Although the current situation is not good, Centennial Life has been actively "saving itself" recently.
The most important thing is to elect a "helmsman".
As early as February 2021, He Yongsheng, the former chairman of Centennial Life, announced his resignation, and at that time, Liu Zhaohui, the "old general" of Dalian Wanda, served as the chairman, but his qualifications have not been approved.
After nearly three years, the chairman of Centennial Life finally landed with "boots". In November 2023, according to the disclosure announcement of the Dalian Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Regulation, the qualifications of Wang Xinhao as chairman and director of Centennial Life Insurance were approved.
It is reported that many people in the industry speculate that Wang Xinhao's appointment is mainly driven by the local regulatory authorities, because the local government intends to take over part of the equity of Centennial Life through local state-owned assets, so Wang Xinhao's appointment is regarded as one of the important signs of more in-depth participation of local state-owned assets.
Indeed, Wang Xinhao has worked in the financial industry in Dalian for many years, and has very rich management experience and international vision. Born in 1967, Wang Xinhao entered the banking industry in 1994 and worked in the Dalian branch of Everbright Bank for 6 years, and later served as the president of the Dalian branch of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the president of the Shanghai branch and the president of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone branch. In 2016, he was appointed as the Vice President of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and since 2019, he has also served as the Chief Financial Officer. In January 2023, he resigned as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
During this period, in June 2023, Dai Wenhao, the former deputy general manager of CPIC Life, joined Centennial Life as the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and proposed to serve as the president of Centennial Life, but his qualifications are still subject to the approval of relevant appointment documents and regulatory authorities.
With the helm, efforts are also needed to alleviate funds, and Centennial Life has reduced its holdings of shares of a number of listed companies to withdraw funds.
On May 6, according to Wanfeng Aowei's announcement, from April 24 to April 29, the second largest shareholder, Centennial Life, reduced its holdings of 9 million shares of Wanfeng Aowei at an average price of 14.88 yuan per share, with a reduction ratio of 0.42% and an estimated cash amount of 134 million yuan. As for the reason for the reduction, Wanfeng Aowei said, "according to the asset allocation needs of Centennial Life and related investment decisions".
However, it is worth noting that since 2015, Centennial Life has bought about 5% of Wanfeng Aowei's shares, and has not only held the shares for nearly 9 years, but also gradually increased its position. If it weren't for such a big financial pressure, perhaps Centennial Life would still choose to add Wanfeng Aowei.
In fact, in addition to Wanfeng Aowei, Centennial Life has also frequently reduced its holdings of other heavy stocks, including Shengli Precision, Jiaze New Energy and Macalline.
Under the pressure of the capital chain, can Centennial Life still achieve "self-help"? The market still needs to give an answer, and we will wait and see.