Activity in China’s insurance market regained its strong
momentum in the first half of 2010, with premium income increasing
by 33.4% compared with the first half of 2009 to CNY799.9bn
($120bn), reports China’s official news service Xinhua,
quoting the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
The increase in the first half of
2010 was significantly higher than the 6.6% increase recorded in
the first half of 2009 and the 10.9% in 2009 as a whole.
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Growth was evenly spread in the
first half of 2010, with life insurance premiums rising 33.7% from
CNY447.4bn to CNY598.2bn and general insurance premium income up
33.5% from CNY151.2bn to 201.7CNYbn.
In the first half of 2009, life
premium income recorded a year-on-year (YOY) increase of only 3.6%
and general insurance a 16.2% increase.
Continuing to underperform in terms
of premium income, China’s largest life insurer, China Life,
reported a modest 11.8% increase in premium income to CNY183.6bn in
the first half of 2010. This followed a 4.2% increase in 2009 as a
whole.
The result was a further fall in
China Life’s market share, which fell to 30.7% in the first half of
2010, down from 35.7% in 2009 as a whole and 42.8% in the first
half of 2008.
China Life’s closest rival, Ping
An, reported total insurance premium income growth of just below
the market average at 32.9% to CNY123.1bn in the first half of
2010.
The insurer’s life insurance
operation Ping An Life (PAL) underperformed somewhat, recording a
22.4% increase to CNY90.5bn.
Notably, PAL’s growth in the first
half of 2010 was significantly lower than the YOY increase of 30.4%
reported in the first quarter of 2010.
PAL’s performance in the first half
of 2010 gave it a market share of 15.1%, down from 16% for 2009 as
a whole and 16.8% in the first half of 2009.
In the first half of 2010, Ping
An’s general insurance unit reported premium income of CNY30bn, up
59.6% compared with the first half of 2009.
The balance of premium income in
the first half of 2010 comprised CNY2.6bn from Ping An’s annuity
insurance unit and CNY79.6m from its health insurance unit.
Performing well was China Pacific
Insurance (CPI) with its life insurance unit, China’s
third-largest, reporting premium income of CNY49bn in the first
half of 2010, up 39.4% compared with the same period in 2009. This
gave it an 8.2% market share, unchanged from 2009 as a whole.
CPI’s general insurance unit
recorded a 45% increase in premium income in the first half of 2010
to CNY27bn.
Among other major domestic life
insurers the strongest showing was by China Taiping Insurance,
which reported that its life unit Taiping Life had achieved premium
income of CNY19.1bn in the first half of 2010, up 70.5% compared
CNY11.2bn in the first half of 2009.
Taiping Life ranks as China’s
fourth-largest life insurer.
French insurer Axa has a 15.6%
stake in Taiping. Speculation that it intends disposing of this
stake first emerged in October 2009 and continues to feature in the
media.
A private equity unit of US investment bank Goldman Sachs is
mooted as the most likely buyer.
|
CHINA TOP THREE LIFE |
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|
Market shares (%) |
|||
|
China Life |
Ping An |
China Pacific |
|
|
2000 |
65 |
22 |
8 |
|
2001 |
57 |
28.7 |
10 |
|
2002 |
57 |
23 |
11 |
|
2003 |
53.8 |
19.6 |
10.4 |
|
2004 |
47.8 |
17.2 |
9.9 |
|
2005 |
44.1 |
16.1 |
12.8 |
|
2006 |
45.3 |
17 |
11.3 |
|
2007 |
39.7 |
16 |
10.2 |
|
2008 |
40.3 |
13.8 |
9 |
|
2009 |
35.7 |
16 |
8.2 |
|
2010* |
30.7 |
15.1 |
8.2 |
|
* First half Source: Company |
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