Trillion insurance funds! What's the signal of buying H-shares of ICBC in a large scale? This year, the insurance fund only raised four cards

After more than four months, insurance companies raised H-shares again.

Taiping Life disclosed on November 24 that on November 22, through the account of Taiping Asset Management, the trustee, Taiping Life increased its holdings of H-shares in the secondary market and raised the brand of ICBC through the Hong Kong Stock Connect, buying 83 million shares in total, involving about HK $310 million.

This is the fourth time since this year that insurance funds have listed companies, and it is also the second time that insurance funds have actively listed H-shares.

Purchase of 83 million ICBC H shares at HK $310 million

Taiping Life is a life insurance company under China Taiping Group. As of September 30, TPL had total assets of 922.582 billion yuan, net assets of 52.576 billion yuan, and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio of 206.25%.

On November 22, Taiping Life Insurance increased its holdings in the secondary market through the Hong Kong Stock Connect through the account of Taiping Asset Management, the trustee, and raised the brand of ICBC's H shares. It bought 83 million shares in total, involving about HK $310 million.

Before participating in the aforementioned listing, TPL held 4.046 billion H-shares of ICBC. After participating in the above listing, TPL held 4.129 billion H-shares of ICBC, accounting for 4.76% of its outstanding shares in Hong Kong.

Based on the closing price of ICBC's H shares of 3.73 yuan (Hong Kong dollars) on November 22, 2022 and the exchange rate of Hong Kong dollars to RMB at the end of the same day, the book balance of ICBC's H shares held by TPL was 14.108 billion yuan, accounting for 1.53% of the company's total assets at the end of the last quarter. As of October 30, 2022, the book balance of equity assets of TPL was 154.84 billion yuan, accounting for 17.1% of the total assets at the end of the previous quarter.

Taiping Life Insurance said that the capital source of this purchase of ICBC's H shares was the insurance liability reserve of the dividend account, and the company incorporated this listing of ICBC's H shares into equity investment management.

As of November 22, 2022, Taiping Insurance Group as a whole held 4.405 billion H shares of ICBC, accounting for 5.08% of the listed company's H share capital. TPL holds 4.129 billion H-shares of ICBC, accounting for 4.76% of the listed company's H-share capital.

Taiping Life Insurance did not raise its A-share listing frequently. The previous one was announced in July 2020. However, due to changes in market environment and regulatory policies, Zoomlion made corresponding adjustments to the original plan for non-public issuance of A-share shares. After research, Taiping Life Insurance ended the subscription in October of that year.

The Chinese reporter of the securities firm combed the information about the raising of the brand since 2016, and TPL has successfully raised the brand for three times. In addition to this raising of ICBC's H shares, the other two were Joy City shares and Agricultural Bank of China's H shares.

Since this year, the insurance fund has only raised four cards

In fact, bank shares have always been the heavy position industry of insurance companies. However, in the first three quarters of this year, as the stock price of bank shares continued to decline, insurance companies frequently reduced their holdings of bank shares, such as China Life Insurance, Ping An Life Insurance, ICBC and Pacific Life Insurance.

In recent years, the combination of financial and real estate stabilization policies has made great efforts to benefit bank stocks, or is one of the driving forces for Taiping Life Insurance to raise its brand.

In the past two years, due to the drastic fluctuations in the capital market and the downward trend in the Hong Kong stock market, there are not many listed insurance companies. According to the statistics of the Chinese reporter of the securities firm, in 2021, the insurance capital listed companies raised their cards only once, and this year only four times, including two passive raising.

Since this year, insurance funds have been raised four times as follows:

In January, Qianhai Life passively held H-shares of Baoxin Real Estate Group. As Baoxin Finance declared and paid interim dividends by distributing Baoxin Land's shares in kind, the company held 7.77% of Baoxin Land's shares passively.

In July, Taikang Life Insurance passively listed shares of Jingxin Pharmaceutical. This is a passive listing, with the number of shares held unchanged. The shareholding ratio has reached more than 5% passively due to the reduction of the total share capital of the listed company. The total shareholding ratio of Taikang Life Insurance and Taikang Assets, the person acting in concert, has risen passively from 4.7963184% to 5.0430325%

In July, Pacific Life Insurance participated in the listing of H-shares of Tianqi Lithium. The company participated in the initial public offering of Tianqi Lithium's Hong Kong shares as a cornerstone investor, and participated in this listing through the company account managed by the trustee Taibao Asset Management Company. The company's related parties and persons acting in concert involved in this listing were China Taibao Group and Pacific Property&Casualty Insurance. Taiping Life, related parties and persons acting in concert held a total of 12.4454 million shares of Tianqi Lithium's Hong Kong shares, The proportion of H shares in the listed company is 7.58%.

In November, Taiping Life Insurance increased its holdings in the secondary market through the Hong Kong Stock Connect through the account of Taiping Asset Management, the trustee, and raised the brand of ICBC's H shares. It bought 83 million shares in total, involving about HK $310 million.

On the whole, the investment of insurance funds in the capital market has increased steadily. Data shows that in the first nine months of this year, the book balance of insurance fund investment in stocks was 1.6 trillion yuan, up 4.38% year on year, the book balance of investment in securities investment funds was 1.15 trillion yuan, up 26.64% year on year, and the book balance of long-term equity investment was 2.12 trillion yuan, up 5.27% year on year

Editor in charge: Yang Yucheng

Checked by: Yang Lilin