External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>The NAFR announced Life and P&amp;C premium income of all registered insurers in Sep, showing trends that: 1) the liability side of the sector continued to improve, despite recent regulatory tightening on channels, products and agent behaviour.</li><li>Personal life reversed a negative monthly YoY from -0.2% in 8M23 to +0.9% in 9M23 (Fig 1), and P&amp;C strengthened growth to +5.9% YoY in 9M23 (vs +3.2% YoY in 8M23), driven by an upward auto growth of 6.9% YoY in 9M23; 2) total investment assets expanded to RMB27.2tn in 9M23, up 8.5% from 12M22, with allocation in bonds increased to 44.0% in 9M23 (vs 43.6% in 8M23), and in stocks and equity funds down to 12.8% (-0.1pct from 8M23, Fig 15).</li><li>We believe the upward trend in long-term yields, evidenced by GCNY10 staying above 2.7% since mid Oct (Fig 18), will continue to benefit investment returns and asset performances of the sector, to serve as a shore-up for the sector’s valuation.</li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

The NAFR announced Life and P&amp;C premium income of all registered insurers in Sep, showing trends that: 1) the liability side of the sector continued to improve, despite recent regulatory tightening on channels, products and agent behaviour.Personal life reversed a negative monthly YoY from -0.2% in 8M23 to +0.9% in 9M23 (Fig 1), and P&amp;C strengthened growth to +5.9% YoY in 9M23 (vs +3.2% YoY in 8M23), driven by an upward auto growth of 6.9% YoY in 9M23; 2) total investment assets expanded to RMB27.2tn in 9M23, up 8.5% from 12M22, with allocation in bonds increased to 44.0% in 9M23 (vs 43.6% in 8M23), and in stocks and equity funds down to 12.8% (-0.1pct from 8M23, Fig 15).We believe the upward trend in long-term yields, evidenced by GCNY10 staying above 2.7% since mid Oct (Fig 18), will continue to benefit investment returns and asset performances of the sector, to serve as a shore-up for the sector’s valuation.Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Equity Bottom-Up

China Pacific Insurance / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>CPIC achieved positive VNB growth for three consecutive quarters with 16.6% YoY growth reported in 1Q23, outperforming major peers (i.e. Ping An/China Life +8.8%/+7.7% YoY).</li><li>The strong VNB momentum in 1Q23 was primarily driven by margin expansion resulted from favourable changes in product and duration mix, thanks to improved agent productivity and capability on back of the Group’s ongoing agency reform.</li><li>The headcount of highly productive agency force that contributed above 90% of the insurer’s VNB modestly rebounded QoQ in 1Q23, whereas major peers are still weighing on a downward trend in agent scale (vs Ping An/China Life -9.2%/-0.9% QoQ). </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

CPIC achieved positive VNB growth for three consecutive quarters with 16.6% YoY growth reported in 1Q23, outperforming major peers (i.e. Ping An/China Life +8.8%/+7.7% YoY).The strong VNB momentum in 1Q23 was primarily driven by margin expansion resulted from favourable changes in product and duration mix, thanks to improved agent productivity and capability on back of the Group’s ongoing agency reform.The headcount of highly productive agency force that contributed above 90% of the insurer’s VNB modestly rebounded QoQ in 1Q23, whereas major peers are still weighing on a downward trend in agent scale (vs Ping An/China Life -9.2%/-0.9% QoQ). Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

CPIC (2601 HK) – Margin Expansion Driven by Improving Agency Quality

<ul><li>CPIC reported 13.5% YoY growth in OPAT, translating to 17.3% YoY growth in 2H22.</li><li>CPIC Life’s positive quarterly VNB growth sustained into 4Q22 with 30% YoY growth (vs +2.5% YoY in 3Q22), on the back of stable scale of high productivity agent team and improving productivity.</li><li>During the analyst briefing, the management indicated that the positive trends of life business sustained into 2M23.</li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

CPIC reported 13.5% YoY growth in OPAT, translating to 17.3% YoY growth in 2H22.CPIC Life’s positive quarterly VNB growth sustained into 4Q22 with 30% YoY growth (vs +2.5% YoY in 3Q22), on the back of stable scale of high productivity agent team and improving productivity.During the analyst briefing, the management indicated that the positive trends of life business sustained into 2M23.Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

CPIC (2601 HK) – Expect sustainable DPS growth onwards

<ul><li>The 2023 jumpstart performance YTD of Chinese life insurers are divergent according to our channel check.</li><li>While most insurance companies continued suffering from new business declines given the weaker-than-expected pre-sale performance amid COVID outbreaks in Dec 2022, China Life recorded a decent FYP growth thanks to its early launch of pre-sale since Oct 2022.</li><li>We also note that the NBV momentum of CPIC and Ping An elevated substantially since midJan 2023, driven by: 1) enhanced agent productivity on the back of proactive agency reform and 2) consistent strong demands for savings products. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

The 2023 jumpstart performance YTD of Chinese life insurers are divergent according to our channel check.While most insurance companies continued suffering from new business declines given the weaker-than-expected pre-sale performance amid COVID outbreaks in Dec 2022, China Life recorded a decent FYP growth thanks to its early launch of pre-sale since Oct 2022.We also note that the NBV momentum of CPIC and Ping An elevated substantially since midJan 2023, driven by: 1) enhanced agent productivity on the back of proactive agency reform and 2) consistent strong demands for savings products. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

China Insurance – Divergent jumpstart performance among life insurers

<ul><li>In our last report dated 17 October, we highlighted a list of 21 long ideas.</li><li>The basket (equal weighted) of these 21 stocks underperformed MSCI China index by 5.4ppt, delivering 0.2% return (vs MSCI China 5.6%).</li><li>China Meidong Auto and Innovent Biologics delivered over 20% of return, and 4 of our 21 long ideas outperformed the benchmark.</li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

In our last report dated 17 October, we highlighted a list of 21 long ideas.The basket (equal weighted) of these 21 stocks underperformed MSCI China index by 5.4ppt, delivering 0.2% return (vs MSCI China 5.6%).China Meidong Auto and Innovent Biologics delivered over 20% of return, and 4 of our 21 long ideas outperformed the benchmark.Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

CMBI Research Focus List (November Edition) – Our best high conviction stock ideas

China

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Company, Ltd. is an integrated insurance services provider. The Company offers life and property insurance products through its subsidiaries.

China Pacific Insurance (2601 HK)

China Insurance – 9M23 Monthly

We believe the upward trend in long-term yields, evidenced by GCNY10 staying above 2.7% since mid Oct, will continue to benefit investment returns

CMB International

CPIC (2601 HK) – Margin Expansion Driven by Improving Agency Quality

CPIC achieved positive VNB growth for three consecutive quarters with 16.6% YoY growth reported in 1Q23, outperforming major peers (i.e. Ping An...

CMB International

CPIC (2601 HK) – Expect sustainable DPS growth onwards

CPIC Life’s positive quarterly VNB growth sustained into 4Q22 with 30% YoY growth (vs +2.5% YoY in 3Q22), on the back of stable scale of high...

CMB International

China Insurance – Divergent jumpstart performance among life insurers

The 2023 jumpstart performance YTD of Chinese life insurers are divergent according to our channel check.While most insurance companies continued...

CMB International

CMBI Research Focus List (November Edition) – Our best high conviction stock ideas

In our last report dated 17 October, we highlighted a list of 21 long ideas.The basket (equal weighted) of these 21 stocks underperformed MSCI...

CMB International