China’s Largest Life Insurers Report Significant Growth in Insurance Service Results
Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. reported the largest increase in insurance service result among China’s three biggest listed life insurers by market capitalization in 2024, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis. The company’s insurance service result, a key IFRS 17 metric, rose to 98.48 billion yuan from 92.53 billion yuan in 2023. This growth was primarily driven by insurance service revenue outpacing the growth in insurance service expense.
New China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. also recorded a higher insurance service result, rising to 15.90 billion yuan in 2024 from 14.03 billion yuan in 2023. Although its insurance service revenue fell slightly to 47.81 billion yuan from 48.05 billion yuan, the decrease in insurance service expenses to 31.58 billion yuan from 33.25 billion yuan contributed to the overall increase. Notably, New China Life reported a 9.8% increase in its insurance service result for issued contracts, rising to 16.28 billion yuan in 2024 from 14.79 billion yuan in 2023.
In contrast, state-owned China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. saw its insurance service results drop to 28.00 billion yuan from 61.80 billion yuan. The decline was attributed to a decrease in insurance service revenue to 208.16 billion yuan from 212.45 billion yuan, coupled with a significant jump in insurance service expenses to 180.54 billion yuan from 150.35 billion yuan. Despite this, China Life expects to have sufficient capital to meet its insurance business expenditures and new general investment requirements in 2025. However, the company acknowledged that asset-liability interaction management needs to be “strengthened urgently.”
Operating Profit Surges Across All Three Insurers
All three life insurers recorded substantial year-over-year gains in operating profit in 2024. China Life reported the biggest increase, with operating profit rising to 119.71 billion yuan from 50.84 billion yuan. Ping An Insurance’s operating profit grew to 236.79 billion yuan from 190.17 billion yuan, while New China Life’s operating profit surged to 32.50 billion yuan from 7.60 billion yuan.
Ping An Insurance CFO Fu Xin commented during an earnings call, “We do believe that life insurance has entered into the golden period of development. Life insurance is no longer an optional product, and it is indeed going to be in rich demand for consumers in our society.”
