China Taiping reported a net investment performance of HK$9.694 billion for the first half of the year, reversing a loss of HK$535 million in the same period last year. Total investment income reached HK$47.952 billion, representing a 120.5% year-on-year increase.

On August 25, China Taiping disclosed its interim results for the period ending 2026. During the first six months, the group achieved insurance service revenue of HK$58.926 billion, up 5.3% year-on-year; insurance service results of HK$12.876 billion, up 4.5%; and profit attributable to shareholders of HK$12.873 billion, a substantial 90.3% increase. Total assets reached HK$2.17 trillion, up 9.1% from the end of 2025, while equity attributable to ordinary shareholders stood at HK$103.638 billion, an 8.9% increase from the end of 2025.

The profit growth was primarily driven by the investment side. China Taiping generated HK$9.694 billion in net investment results during the first half, compared to a loss of HK$535 million a year earlier. Total investment income surged 120.5% to HK$47.952 billion. Concurrently, the group's "15th Five-Year Plan" designates medical & elderly care, fintech, and shared services as its three core ecosystems. The interim announcement revealed that the number of elderly residents in self-built wellness communities grew 53% year-on-year, home-based care experience centers expanded to over 120, and more than 20,000 home-care qualifications were issued.

From a group-wide perspective for the first half of 2026, China Taiping can be summarized as follows: insurance service business is growing steadily, the investment side is recovering rapidly, life insurance is undergoing transitions in products, channels, and agent force, while P&C insurance is rebalancing between premium growth and underwriting efficiency.

Life Insurance Agent Numbers Drop by 10,000 While Per-Capita Periodic Premiums Rise 20% Year-on-Year

Life insurance was the core segment contributing the largest profit increment for China Taiping in the first half. Taiping Life achieved after-tax profit of HK$16.682 billion, up 101.5% year-on-year, with insurance service revenue of HK$33.951 billion (up 5.3%) and insurance service results of HK$11.593 billion (up 6.0%). However, the life insurance net investment performance swung from a loss of HK$1.816 billion in the first half of 2025 to a profit of HK$7.775 billion, indicating that a substantial portion of the profit doubling still came from investment-side recovery.

Looking first at the agent force changes. According to the period-end metrics in the two reports, at the end of 2025, Taiping Life had 166,704 individual agents. The Q1 2026 solvency report, using the "period-end individual agent count" standard, showed 182,728 agents at the end of March, an increase of 16,024 from the beginning of the year, or 9.61%. By the end of June, the number stood at 172,003, a decrease of 10,725 from the end of Q1 (a single-quarter drop of 5.87%), but still 5,299 more than at the start of the year, representing a half-year growth of 3.18%.

The productivity changes were even more striking than the headcount figures. The interim announcement disclosed that the monthly per-capita periodic premium per agent reached HK$29,294 at the end of June, up HK$12,441 from HK$16,853 at the end of 2025, an increase of 73.8%. Compared to the same period last year, this metric stood at HK$24,302 at the end of June 2025, implying a year-on-year growth of approximately 20.5% for June 2026.

During the first half, Taiping Life's business transition became very apparent, with the product mix shifting from traditional products with high guarantees and rigid structures toward participating policies. Participating insurance original premiums reached HK$64.489 billion, up 76.4% year-on-year, accounting for approximately 48.5% of Taiping Life's total original premiums. Participating policies represented 97.8% of first-year periodic premiums for long-term policies, up 10.7 percentage points from the same period last year. Meanwhile, traditional life insurance original premiums fell 30.8%, annuity insurance dropped 47.7%, long-term health insurance saw a modest 2.6% increase, and accident and short-term health insurance grew 29.2%.

The "unified reporting and fee alignment" policy was repeatedly emphasized by the company in the context of business restructuring. For Taiping Life, the new business after the product transition showed some pressure. In the first half of 2026, the new business value (NBV) measured in RMB was RMB 6.268 billion, up 1.4% year-on-year. In HKD terms, after deducting capital costs, NBV was HK$7.216 billion, an increase of approximately 6.5% from HK$6.778 billion in the same period last year. However, the overall NBV margin declined from 21.6% to 20.1%, a drop of 1.5 percentage points.

By channel, the individual agency NBV was HK$5.023 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year, with an NBV margin of 23.5%, up 0.8 percentage points from the same period last year. Bancassurance NBV was HK$2.059 billion, down 2.3% year-on-year, with an NBV margin of 18.0%, down 2.0 percentage points. Furthermore, the bancassurance premium structure also changed: single-premium first-year premiums for long-term policies surged 193.6%, periodic premiums grew 7.4%, but renewal premiums declined 9.5%, leading to an overall 2.2% drop in total original bancassurance premiums.

P&C Insurance Premiums Grow 5.9% While After-Tax Profit Declines 15.5% to HK$580 Million

Taiping P&C's original premiums for the first half reached HK$20.480 billion, up 5.9% year-on-year. By line of business, marine insurance grew 30.5%, non-marine insurance rose 6.1%, and auto insurance increased 4.7%. Taiping P&C's individual customer base grew to 20.8017 million, an increase of 237,900 from the end of the year, while corporate customers decreased by 5,398 and direct sales representatives declined by 156. Market share slipped from 1.9% to 1.8%.

Breaking it down further, insurance service revenue grew 4.9% to HK$17.972 billion, but insurance service expenses rose 7.1% to HK$17.125 billion, leading to a significant drop in insurance service results. Insurance service results fell to HK$569 million, down 26.8% year-on-year, while after-tax profit was HK$580 million, down 15.5%. The combined ratio rose from 96.7% to 98.0%, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. However, net investment performance grew 24.3% to HK$336 million. The company attributed the combined ratio control to comprehensive process-wide cost management and improved claims management efficiency.

Compared with domestic P&C operations, Taiping P&C's overseas business showed a mixed picture. The overseas P&C segment's after-tax profit was HK$363 million, up 40.8% year-on-year. Taiping Hong Kong's insurance service results grew 50.8%, after-tax profit rose 57.1%, and the combined ratio improved to 90.8%, 5.8 percentage points better than the same period last year. Taiping Macau's combined ratio was 83.4%, improving 1.3 percentage points, but after-tax profit fell 8.8%. Taiping Singapore's combined ratio was 90.0%, improving 2.3 percentage points, with after-tax profit up 52.2%. Taiping UK's insurance service results dropped from HK$55.93 million to HK$6.45 million, though after-tax profit swung from a loss of HK$35.03 million to a profit of HK$6.16 million; the combined ratio rose from 58.7% to 95.3%, a deterioration of 36.6 percentage points. Taiping Indonesia's after-tax profit fell 21.5%, with the combined ratio rising to 95.0%, up 6.0 percentage points. The UK remains underwriting profitable but with notably worsened cost ratios, while Indonesia saw premium growth of 19.2% alongside declining profits.

Investment Recovery: Total Investment Income Surges 120.5% to HK$47.952 Billion

The biggest turning point in China Taiping's first-half profit came from the investment side. The group's investment assets reached HK$1.9415 trillion, up 11.4% from the end of 2025. Total investment income was HK$47.952 billion, a 120.5% year-on-year increase, with net investment performance swinging from a loss of HK$535 million to a profit of HK$9.694 billion.

However, the doubling of total investment income does not mean all investment metrics improved simultaneously; the net investment yield actually declined. Net investment income was HK$26.215 billion, up 3.7% year-on-year, while realized and unrealized capital gains swung from a loss of HK$3.519 billion in the same period last year to a profit of HK$21.737 billion. Based on total investment income, capital gains accounted for approximately 45.3%. The annualized net investment yield fell from 3.11% to 2.85%, down 0.26 percentage points, while the annualized total investment yield rose from 2.68% to 5.21%, up 2.53 percentage points.

Relatively stable net investment income items such as interest and dividends showed limited growth, while capital gains from market spreads and fair value changes recovered significantly. The announcement explained that the return to positive capital gains was mainly due to FVPL equity returns being significantly better than the same period last year. When including fair value changes of FVOCI bonds in comprehensive income, the non-annualized comprehensive investment yield was 2.98%, up 1.12 percentage points from the same period last year. Excluding the impact of approximately HK$14.708 billion in FVOCI bond fair value changes, the non-annualized comprehensive investment yield was 2.19%.

Equity investment performance was the focal point of this investment recovery. The company disclosed that the domestic FVPL secondary market equity investment yield was 14.5%, outperforming the CSI 300 Total Return Index by 5.9 percentage points. This flexibility was also reflected in asset allocation. At the end of June, the group's insurance funds held 80.2% in fixed-income investments, 18.9% in equity investments, 0.6% in long-term equity investments, 1.2% in investment properties, and negative 0.9% in cash, cash equivalents, and other items.

By investment target, debt securities accounted for 73.7% of investment assets, down 2.4 percentage points from 76.1% at the end of 2025. Equity securities represented 12.2%, roughly flat, while investment funds rose from 4.4% to 5.9%. Combined stocks and funds accounted for 18.1%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points. Meanwhile, the fixed-income foundation remained robust. The group held approximately HK$1.43 trillion in bond investments, representing about 66.0% of total assets. Domestic bond investments accounted for 93.6%, with 99.98% allocated to high-credit-quality AAA-rated bonds, government bonds, and policy bank bonds, all rated BBB or above. Overseas bond investments made up 6.4%, with approximately 98.5% rated BBB or above by international rating agencies. Debt products totaled approximately HK$41.537 billion, about 1.9% of total assets, while real estate debt financial products were approximately HK$9.834 billion, or 0.5% of total assets; the announcement stated that these assets maintained relatively high credit ratings with comprehensive credit enhancement measures.

Additionally, the asset management business also achieved growth. In the first half, after-tax profit from asset management was HK$532 million, up 166.2% year-on-year, with management fee income of HK$1.525 billion, up 12.2%. The group's insurance funds' assets grew 11.4% to HK$1.9415 trillion, while third-party managed assets increased 3.7% to HK$1.0605 trillion. The company stated that it actively reduced asset management businesses with lower management fee rates while expanding corporate annuity and pension businesses. Taiping Asset Management and Taiping Fund generated total pre-tax management fee income of HK$1.109 billion, of which HK$221 million came from external clients, representing 19.9%.