China Life 2628; ADR (LFC)

[winston]

DJ MARKET TALK: China Life +0.2% At Pre-Open; CS Stays Neutral

0937 [Dow Jones] At pre-open, China Life (2628.HK) only +0.2% at HK$27.40, may not rise much beyond 10-day moving average of HK$27.66, despite seemingly strong 55% jump in 1Q net profit to CNY5.39 billion. Credit Suisse says while results overall solid with good sequential, on-year earnings recovery, "there were elements of the results that were less than spectacular;" notes revenue growth was only 5% on-year; while subdued premium growth (+1.2% on-year) expected, investment income relatively modest, with annualized yield just 4.2%. Keeps Neutral call, HK$25.00 target price

[winston]

DJ MARKET TALK: China Life May Fall After Premium Income Decline

0900 [Dow Jones] China Life (2628.HK) may fall if tracking its ADRs (down 0.7% at equivalent of HK$27.35) after January-April premium income down 1.6% on-year at CNY126 billion. UOB KayHian says April premiums down 15% on-year at CNY22 billion due to restructuring of premium composition, high base in 2008.

"China Life's monthly premiums continued to decline on a year-on-year basis as it restructures its premium composition to move away from bancassurance products and into agency-driven participating (PAR) products," says UOB.

But adds, while negative premium growth to likely continue over next few months, house confident revamp of premium income to have positive impact on company longer-term, as PAR products have higher margins and greater contribution to underlying embedded value vs single-premium products.

Keeps at Buy, target at HK$31.30. Stock ended +0.9% at HK$27.55 Friday

[winston]

DJ MARKET TALK:UOB Ups China Life Target 7.3%;Rate Downcycle Ends

0802 [Dow Jones] STOCK CALL: UOB KayHian raises China Life (2628.HK) target price to HK$33.58 from HK$31.30, as raises FY09-10 net profit forecasts by 15.8%, 9.0% due to higher net investment yield assumption; keeps Buy call.

Says PBOC hinted current interest rate downcycle has ended, bond yields already stabilized, could be guided higher in near future by regulators, which will have positive impact on net investment income, margins for life insurers.

"China Life continues to be our top pick for the life insurance sector on its dominant rural insurance business, excellent cost control and its pure life insurance exposure," UOB says. Stock ended +2.2% at HK$28.05 yesterday

[winston]

UPDATE 1-China Life sees weak premiums, will stick to bonds

BEIJING, May 25 (Reuters) - Chinese industry-wide life assurance premiums will not grow by much this year and may even fall due to a change in government regulations, Wan Feng, president of China Life Insurance Co Ltd, said on Monday.

Wan said the reason for the subdued outlook was new Ministry of Finance rules coming into force in 2009 that bar insurers from counting income from investment-linked or universal insurance products as premiums.

"As a consequence, the competitive landscape of the insurance industry will undergo a profound change," he told a meeting of shareholders of China Life (2628.HK)(601628.SS), the world's largest life insurer by market value.

Vice-President Liu Jiade said the ratio of equities in China Life's investment portfolio increased slightly during the first quarter, when the Shanghai market was one of the best-performing in the world.

But fixed-income instruments still accounted for more than 80 percent of China Life's assets. Liu said.

China's domestic capital markets were shrouded in uncertainty this year, but Liu expressed confidence in their long-term prospects.

Chairman Yang Chao said China Life would stick to bonds and would not change its prudent investment strategy because of the global financial crisis.

[winston]

Why did this counter jump 5% today on no news? PE 36. Negligible growth in Insurance Revenue. Very expensive.

Maybe it went up because the A shares were up. Need to see how much of their portfolio is in Equities. Ping An only had 10% in Equities..

[winston]

As expected. Waiting for details ..

*DJ China Life 1H Premium Growth Down On Year - Report

[winston]

DJ MARKET TALK:China Life +1.8%;Premium Pattern Little Changed-CS

1519 [Dow Jones] China Life (2628.HK) +1.8% at HK$31.15, mostly in line with HSI's 1.8% gain, ignoring 5.2% on-year decline in 1H09 premium income. Credit Suisse says China Life's premium volumes remain subdued, pattern of growth largely unchanged year-to-date, with single-premium volumes derived from bancassurance channel down as China Life purposely de-emphasized this product/channel.

At same time, agent channel delivering limited growth in regular first-year premiums, reflecting lengthening of premium payment structures. Thinks investors understand read-through for VNB (value of new business) isn't as negative, as while new business APE (annualized premium earnings) may decline by double-digits, lengthening of premium payment structure may add 6 percentage points to new business margin. Keeps Outperform call, HK$35 target price.

[winston]

The expert Analysts used to tout this stock as a growth story. China mah ... 1.3b people lining up to buy Life Insurance

China Life H1 premium revenue down 5 pct -report

BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - China Life Insurance (Group), parent of the world's largest life insurer by market value, suffered a 4.6 percent decline in premium revenue in the first half compared with a year earlier, state media said on Tuesday.

The parent of China Life Insurance Co Ltd (2628.HK) (601628.SS) earned 186.5 billion yuan ($27.3 billion) in premium revenue in the first six months of 2009, down from 195.5 billion yuan in the same period last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The group's net profits, though, rose 43 percent from a year earlier to 8.7 billion yuan in the first half, Xinhua said.

Investment incomes, battered by the Chinese stock market plunge last year, had been set to recover strongly thanks to the big bounce in share prices this year.

Wan Feng, president of the listed China Life company, said in May that Chinese industry-wide life assurance premiums would grow by only a little or perhaps even fall this year.

He said the reason for the subdued outlook was new finance ministry rules that bar insurers from counting income from investment-linked or universal insurance products as premiums.

Ping An Insurance (601318.SS), a rival of China Life's, last week reported a 36 percent rise in premium income in the first half from a year earlier.

[winston]

If you been following the recommendations of the "expert" Analysts, you would have bought a lot of China Life becuz of the strong performance of the A Shares eventhough they had about 10% Equities only.

Now that the A shares is down 3% now, what are u gonna do ?

[kennynah]

only 3% correction mah.... according to a guru, named O'Neil, one should cut only at 7%..... so, technically, nothing needs to be done now....