China Life Insurance sees profits rise in H1

China Life Insurance Co Ltd has gained a net profit of approximately 16.42 billion yuan ($2.39 billion) in the first half of 2018, a 34 percent year-on-year increase, according to the company's statement on Friday.

The company's total assets reached approximately 3.04 trillion yuan in the same period, an increase of 5 percent from the end of 2017, the company's statement said. Its embedded value has increased 4.8 percent from the end of 2017, reaching approximately 769.23 billion yuan.

During the same period, the company's total revenue has reached 401.69 billion yuan, a 1.4 percent year-on-year increase, according to the company's report.

On the basis of a significant reduction of single premiums of approximately 51.25 billion yuan, the company's gross written premiums reached 360.48 billion yuan, a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase, the report said.

The company's market share in the first half of the year was approximately 22 percent, remaining in first place in the industry, according to the company's report.

However, its sales value in the half-year period was 281.66 billion yuan, a decrease of 23.7 percent year-on-year, according to data revealed by the company.

The challenges posed by the long-term savings business, especially the interest rate environment, in the first half of 2018 is the major reason for the decrease, said Li Mingguang, vice-president, chief actuary and board secretary of China Life Insurance.

According to the company's statement, its investment assets reached approximately 2.7 trillion yuan in the same period, an increase of 4.6 percent from the end of 2017, the company's report said.

Its gross investment yield reached 3.7 percent, with net investment yield reaching 4.64 percent, the company's statement said.

The insurance industry has been experiencing a transformation from rapid growth to high-quality development, said Lin Dairen, president of China Life Insurance.

"The future development prospects of the insurance industry are still positive, with tightened supervision, implementation of policies to maintain market order and a rapidly aging population to provide growing market demand," he said.

Established in 2003 in Beijing, China Life Insurance has focused on providing products and services including individual life insurance, group life insurance and accident and health insurance, according to the company's statement.
By the end of June 2018, the company had approximately 275 million long-term individual and group members in life insurance, annuity products and accident and health insurance in China, the company's statement said.

Fan Hang contributed to this story.