CHINA LIFE SAYS THAT 20% GROWTH CONSISTENT WITH PROFITABILITY

Chinese assurer China Life has said that it will continue its strategy of focusing on strong total premium growth and a higher market share. The company reported a 37% growth in premiums for the first half and said that it was confident it could move to more profitable types of product as it continued to grow. With premium income of 100.9bn yuan the company’s market share in China grew from 45% to more than 50% in the first half as rival Ping An, with premium income of 33.48bn yuan, said that it would be focusing on profitability rather than growth. China Pacific Life was the third-largest assurer, with premiums of 20.7bn yuan. China Life executive director Miao Fuchun said that the growth was not damaging profit, even though net profit fell by 10% in the first half to 2.81bn yuan. This was attributed to writedowns on investments in China’s “unpredictable” equity market. Acquisition costs also rose sharply, to 758m yuan from 266m yuan. Mr Miao said this was due to a shift in the type of policies sold, where more of the acquisition cost was borne in the first year. Meanwhile, the leading foreign assurer in China for the first half was American International Assurance, with 2.48bn in premium income and a 1.26% market share.