China Life Insurance Company Limited Announces 2020 Annual Results (H Shares)

HONG KONG, March 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China Life Insurance Company Limited (SSE: 601628, SEHK: 2628, NYSE: LFC) announces the audited consolidated results of the Company (China Life Insurance Company Limited and its subsidiaries) for the year ended 31 December 2020 (the "Reporting Period") prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards today.

Highlights

• As at the end of the Reporting Period, the Company's total assets reached RMB4,252,410 million, an increase of 14.1% from the end of 2019. The Company's embedded value was RMB1,072,140 million, an increase of 13.8% from the end of 2019.
• During the Reporting Period, the Company's total revenue was RMB804,961 million, an increase of 10.3% year on year; the Company's gross written premiums were RMB612,265 million, an increase of 8.0% year on year, maintaining its industry leadership position; the value of one year's sales was RMB58,373 million, basically remaining stable from 2019.
• As at the end of the Reporting Period, the Company's investment assets reached RMB4,095,454 million, an increase of 14.6% from the end of 2019. During the Reporting Period, the gross investment yield was 5.30%, the net investment yield was 4.34%. The comprehensive investment yield taking into account the current net fair value changes of available-for-sale securities recognized in other comprehensive income was 6.33%.
• During the Reporting Period, net profit attributable to equity holders of the Company was RMB50,268 million.
• The board of directors of the Company recommended the payment of a final dividend of RMB0.64 per share (inclusive of tax). The foregoing profit distribution plan is subject to the approval by the 2020 Annual General Meeting to be held on 30 June 2021 (Wednesday).
  

Business Overview of 2020 

In 2020, the unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic posed great challenges to the development of the insurance industry. On the one hand, as the macro economy slowed down significantly, demands for insurance was difficult to be fully released; on the other hand, the onsite insurance operation activities were restricted, affecting both the business development and agent team-building. Under the combined influence of multiple factors, the growth of the life insurance industry for the year declined.

Despite a tough and complicated external environment, the Company pushed forward high-quality development, adhered to the strategic core of "Three Major Transformations, Dual Centers and Dual Focuses, Asset-liability Interaction", and upheld the operational guideline of "prioritizing business value, strengthening sales force, achieving stable growth, upgrading technology, optimizing customer services and guarding against risks". The Company proceeded well with both the pandemic control and the reform and development, and realized a steady and sound growth of its key performance indicators, such as embedded value and premium income. During the Reporting Period, the Company achieved the coordinated growth of business scale and value, pushed forward the asset-liability interaction, accelerated the implementation of technological achievements, improved both the quality and efficiency of operations and services, and achieved remarkable results for the Company's high-quality development.

During the Reporting Period, despite the impact of the pandemic, the Company demonstrated development resilience with key business indicators reaching their record high. In 2020, the Company's gross written premiums amounted to RMB612,265 million, exceeding RMB600 billion for the first time, an increase of 8.0% year on year, maintaining its industry leadership position. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the embedded value of the Company exceeded RMB1 trillion, reaching RMB1,072,140 million, an increase of 13.8% from the end of 2019.

During the Reporting Period, the Company continued to prioritize business value, and its business structure was further optimized. Premiums from new policies amounted to RMB193,939 million, an increase of 7.0% year on year. In particular, first-year regular premiums amounted to RMB115,421 million (a year-on-year increase of 5.5%), which accounted for 97.96% of long-term first-year premiums. The percentage of premiums from designated protection-oriented products in the first-year regular premiums rose by 0.6 percentage point year on year, with a continuous increase in the average premiums per policy. Renewal premiums amounted to RMB418,326 million (a year-on-year increase of 8.4%), which accounted for 68.32% of the gross written premiums (a year-on-year increase of 0.29 percentage point). Facing a complicated external environment in 2020, first-year regular premiums with a payment duration of ten years or longer reached RMB56,398 million, a decrease of 4.7% year on year. In 2020, the value of one year's sales of the Company was RMB58,373 million, a decrease of 0.6% year on year, basically remaining stable. As for the end of the Reporting Period, the number of long-term in-force policies was 317 million, an increase of 4.6% from the end of 2019. During the Reporting Period, the surrender rate was 1.09%, a decrease of 0.80 percentage point year on year.

During the Reporting Period, the Company continued to enhance the asset-liability management and the asset-liability interaction created synergy on two ends. With enhanced emphasis on asset-liability management, the Company strengthened its asset-liability matching, established a management system with clear rights and responsibilities as well as orderly operation, and improved relevant systems and processes. To fully implement the asset-liability management philosophy, the Company effectively coordinated various processes, including business planning, operations and services, product development and investment management. In 2020, the Company adhered to the market-oriented approach, achieved significant improvement in its asset allocation capability and realized a stable increase in its investment income. The gross investment income reached RMB198,596 million, an increase of 17.5% year on year. Due to the combined impact of the update of discount rate assumptions for reserves of traditional insurance contracts, the adjustment of the policy on pre-tax deduction of underwriting and policy acquisition costs adopted in 2019 and the change in gross investment income, net profit attributable to equity holders of the Company was RMB50,268 million, a decrease of 13.8% year on year.

Insurance Business

During the Reporting Period, gross written premiums from the life insurance business of the Company amounted to RMB480,593 million, rising by 7.6% year on year; gross written premiums from the health insurance business reached RMB115,089 million, rising by 9.0% year on year, and gross written premiums from accident insurance business were RMB16,583 million, rising by 11.0% year on year.

In 2020, the Company continued to push forward the customer-centric sales deployment of "Yi Ti Duo Yuan". The individual agent business sector focused on the individual customer market and the capability in value creation was prominent. The diversified business sector targeted institutional customers and its business positioning was clearly defined, which saw effective improvement in its professional operation capability. With emphasis on business development driven by productive sales force, the structure of its sales force was further optimized. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the Company's total sales force was approximately 1.458 million, maintaining the leading position in the industry.

Individual Agent Business Sector

In 2020, facing the severe impact of the pandemic on the economic and social development as well as the insurance industry, the individual agent business sector adhered to the priority of business value, pushed forward transformation and upgrade of its sales management, continued to optimize its business structure, and realized continuous growth in both business scale and value against unfavourable market conditions. During the Reporting Period, the gross written premiums from the sector amounted to RMB511,044 million, an increase of 5.5% year on year. First-year regular premiums were RMB99,555 million, an increase of 3.7% year on year. The designated protection-oriented business continued to grow, with its first-year regular premiums and the average premiums per policy rising significantly year on year. As affected by the pandemic, first-year regular premiums with a payment duration of ten years or longer in the sector were RMB56,183 million, a decrease of 2.2% year on year. Renewal premiums amounted to RMB391,272 million, an increase of 5.4% year on year. The capability of the individual agent business sector in value creation was prominent. The value of one year's sales of the sector was RMB57,669 million, an increase of 1.2% year on year. New business margin of one year's sales of the sector was 47.9%, which remained stable compared to 2019.

In 2020, the individual agent business sector firmly implemented the strategy of business development driven by productive sales force, and fully upgraded the Agent Management and Compensation System in line with the deployment of "Dingxin Project" to enhance the quality of the sales force. Despite certain fluctuation in the size of the sales force due to the impact of the pandemic, the Company firmly adhered to high-quality development by further tightening the agent recruitment, strengthening sales force management and optimizing the structure of the sales force. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the number of agents of the sector was 1,378,000, including 841,000 agents from the general agent team and 537,000 agents from the upsales team, and the monthly average productive agents increased by 9.7% year on year.

Diversified Business Sector

In 2020, the transformation and upgrade under "Dingxin Project" was carried out in the diversified business sector in great depth. By concentrating on the development philosophy of "professional operation, enhancement of quality and efficiency, transformation and innovation, and regulatory compliance", the diversified business sector coordinated well with the individual agent business sector, and focused on the development of bancassurance, group insurance and health insurance business. Although business development was generally affected by the pandemic, the diversified business sector consolidated its advantages, and demonstrated an upward trend in business development. During the Reporting Period, gross written premiums from the sector amounted to RMB101,221 million, an increase of 22.6% year on year.

Bancassurance Channel. With equal emphasis on business scale and value as its long-term goal, the bancassurance channel focused on bank agency business and steadily pushed forward the business transformation. During the Reporting Period, gross written premiums from the channel amounted to RMB41,240 million, an increase of 62.1% year on year. First-year regular premiums amounted to RMB15,748 million, an increase of 26.1% year on year. Renewal premiums amounted to RMB25,109 million (a year-on-year increase of 100.6%), accounting for 60.89% of the gross written premiums from the channel (a year-on-year increase of 11.69 percentage points). The bancassurance channel constantly strengthened sales team management, and the quality of the sales force was improved steadily. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the number of bancassurance channel account managers was 29,000, and both the quarterly average active managers and the production capacity per manager increased substantially.

Group Insurance Channel. The group insurance channel continued to deepen its diversified business development and improve profitability, reinforced the expansion of key business sectors, and achieved steady development in different business fields. During the Reporting Period, gross written premiums from the channel were RMB28,872 million, an increase of 0.1% year on year. Short-term insurance premiums were RMB24,970 million, an increase of 4.8% year on year. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the number of direct sales representatives was 51,000, and the number of high-performance personnel increased by 33.3% from the end of 2019.

Other Channels. In 2020, gross written premiums from other channels reached RMB31,109 million, an increase of 10.0% year on year. The Company actively participated in all kinds of government-sponsored health insurance businesses, which maintained the leading market position. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the Company carried out over 220 supplementary major medical expenses insurance programs, providing services to 360 million people. It also undertook over 300 health care entrusted programs, covering 170 million people, provided supplementary medical insurance to 54 million people, and offered long-term care insurance protection to 15 million people.

The Company pushed forward its online insurance business, consistently increased the supply of online insurance products, enhanced its online insurance operations and promoted integration of online and offline sales to provide a more diversified and convenient channel for customers seeking insurance products and services. In 2020, the Company's online insurance business saw greater development opportunities, which resulted in a rapid growth of its development.

Being customer-centric, the Company fully leveraged the collaborative advantages of the fellow members of China Life Insurance (Group) Company and actively provided customers with a series of quality financial and insurance service solutions. In 2020, premiums from property insurance cross-sold by the Company exceeded RMB 20 billion for the first time, an increase of 14.0% year on year, whereas new bids of enterprise annuity funds and pension security products of China Life Pension Company Limited cross-sold by the Company grew by 20.7% year on year. The Company entrusted China Guangfa Bank Co. Ltd. ("CGB") to sell bancassurance products, with first-year regular premiums increasing by 29.0% year on year. The number of new debit cards and credit cards jointly issued by the Company and CGB exceeded 1,150,000. Meanwhile, the Company gave full play to the brand advantages on the comprehensive financial strength, and worked with CGB and China Life Property and Casualty Insurance Company Limited to carry out various operation activities to provide customers with diversified and individualized services, thus fostering a sound synergy and mutual benefits.

Investment Business

In 2020, the global economy was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which then started to recover as governments around the world introduced macro hedging policies. By effectively coordinating the pandemic prevention and control and the economic and social development, and accelerating the formation of a new development pattern of "dual circulation", China's economy was the first to pick up and continued to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and China was the world's only major economy to achieve growth in 2020. Throughout the year, the interest rate of the domestic bond market fluctuated greatly, which rebounded significantly after falling to a historical low level in early April and went higher than the level at the beginning of 2020; at the same time, the stock market also fluctuated upward after falling to the lowest level of the whole year at the end of March with an obvious structural market characteristics.

The Company actively responded to the complex and ever-changing investment environment, adhered to the fundamental principle of asset-liability interaction management, firmly implemented its strategic allocation plan for assets with medium- and long-terms, and made flexible tactical allocation based on market situations. In 2020, the Company mainly allocated to three major asset types. Firstly, in respect of the liability-matching portfolios, the Company effectively seized the opportunity of interest rate recovery and a supply increase in the second half of 2020, and increased allocation mainly in government bonds with long duration to further lengthen the duration of assets and narrow the duration gap between assets and liabilities; secondly, in respect of non-standard fixed income assets and quasi-fixed income assets with stable cash flows and higher interest income, to which the Company insisted on allocating as much as possible on the premise of controlling credit risks by proactively dealing with the situation of the decreasing financing demands and intensified market competitions; thirdly, in respect of equity assets with potential elastic return in the future, the Company continued to increase its allocation to core assets under the structural market environment, and optimized the tactical investment of equity assets to increase the yields from the asset portfolios.

In 2020, the Company reshaped its organizational structure according to investment value chain and established a market-oriented incentive and restraint mechanism, which resulted in a significant improvement of its coordinated management capability in asset allocation. In respect of entrusted management, the Company introduced a competitive mechanism that compared entrusted asset managers within and outside China Life, eliminating bad performers through strict assessment. The constant optimization of investment management system was expected to have long-term and far-reaching effects on the Company's insurance fund investment.

As at the end of the Reporting Period, the Company's investment assets reached RMB4,095,454 million, an increase of 14.6% from the end of 2019. Among the major types of investments, the percentage of investment in bonds rose to 41.97% from 39.48% as at the end of 2019, the percentage of term deposits changed to 13.32% from 14.98% as at the end of 2019, the percentage of investment in debt-type financial products changed to 11.08% from 11.62% as at the end of 2019, and the percentage of investment in stocks and funds (excluding money market funds) rose to 11.31% from 11.00% as at the end of 2019.

During the Reporting Period, the Company's net investment income was RMB162,783 million, an increase of RMB13,674 million from 2019, rising by 9.2% year on year. Due to the impact of an overall decline in interest rate during 2020 as well as the maturity of the existing investment assets, the net investment yield was 4.34%, down by 27 base points from 2019. By closely keeping pace with equity market fluctuations and paying constant attention to risk exposures, the Company timely cashed-in spread income, continued to optimize its position structure, and achieved stable investment income. The gross investment income of the Company reached RMB198,596 million, an increase of RMB29,553 million from 2019. The gross investment yield was 5.30%, up by 6 base points from 2019. The comprehensive investment yield taking into account the current net fair value changes of available-for-sale securities recognized in other comprehensive income was 6.33%, down by 95 base points from 2019.

The Company's debt-type financial products mainly concentrated on the sectors such as transportation, finance, public utilities and energy, and the financing entities were primarily large central-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises. As at the end of the Reporting Period, over 99% of the debt-type financial products were rated AAA or above by external rating institutions. In general, the quality of the Company's debt-type financial assets was in good condition and the credit risks were well controlled.

The Company insisted on the prudent investment philosophy and carried out comprehensive risk management to prevent various investment risks. Based on a disciplined and scientific internal rating system and a multi-dimensional management mechanism of risk limits, the Company scrutinized credit profiles of targets and risk exposure concentration before investment in a prudent manner and carried out ongoing tracking after investment, effectively controlling credit risks through early detection, early warning and early disposal. Under a market environment where credit default events occurred frequently, no credit default event occurred for the Company in 2020.

2021 Outlook

2021 is the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan and also a critical year for the Company's high-quality development. We will further push forward the "China Life Revitalization" initiative, and continue to maintain high-quality development. We will also fully engage in the new development pattern of "dual circulation" and strive to achieve stable development, business quality improvement, reform and innovation, and risk prevention and control. We will take development as the top priority, emphasize business value, and achieve business development driven by a productive sales force; fully push forward the "Dingxin Project" reforms, accelerate marketization, and further enhance internal driving forces; continue to reinforce the technology and innovation driven development, accelerate operational digitalization, and provide customers with "convenient, quality and caring" services; continue to strengthen asset-liability interaction, strictly implement the regulatory requirements, continuously improve the risk prevention and control system, strictly prevent key risks, and enhance our corporate governance capability.

With a profound historical accumulation, China Life has always played an important role of an explorer and pioneer of China's life insurance industry. Time goes by with dreams ahead. In this new promising era, we will stick to our original aspiration and forge ahead on the journey of building a world-class life insurance company, with a view to rewarding our shareholders and people from all walks of life with satisfactory operating performances.

About China Life Insurance Company Limited

China Life Insurance Company Limited is a life insurance company established in Beijing, China on 30 June 2003 according to the "Company Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Insurance Law of the People's Republic of China". The Company was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 17 and 18 December 2003, and 9 January 2007, respectively. The Company's registered capital is RMB28,264,705,000.

The Company is a leading life insurance company in China and possesses an extensive distribution network comprising exclusive agents, direct sales representatives, and dedicated and non-dedicated agencies. The Company is one of the largest institutional investors in China, and becomes one of the largest insurance asset management companies in China through its controlling shareholding in China Life Asset Management Company Limited. The Company also has controlling shareholding in China Life Pension Company Limited.

Our products and services include individual life insurance, group life insurance, and accident and health insurance. The Company is a leading provider of individual and group life insurance, annuity products and accident and health insurance in China. As at 31 December 2020, the Company had approximately 317 million long-term individual and group life insurance policies, annuity contracts, and long-term health insurance policies in force. We also provide both individual and group accident and short-term health insurance policies and services.

The 2020 consolidated financial statements of the Company prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards have been audited by Ernst & Young based on the International Standards on Auditing and Ernst & Young has issued standard unqualified opinions on the 2020 consolidated financial statements.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may be viewed as "forward-looking statements" as defined by Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may mean that the actual performance, financial condition or results of operations of the Company could be materially different from any future performance, financial condition or results of operations implied by such forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these risks, uncertainties and other factors is included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2019 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on 29 April 2020; and in the Company's other filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise stated, all information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Unless otherwise indicated, the Chinese insurance market information set forth in this press release is based on public information released by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

SOURCE China Life Insurance Company Limited