Source: Time Finance
New China Life Insurance (601336.SH) is taking another step in the equity market.
On 10 9, New China Life Insurance disclosed a notice of shareholding increase. After New China Asset increased its holding in Guotai Haitong (601211.SH; 02611.HK) H-shares by 995.96 million shares, its combined holding with concert parties New China Asset and New China Asset (Hong Kong) rose to 7.1 billion shares, representing 20.24% of the total H-share capital of Guotai Haitong.
This marks the first time that domestic insurance capital has increased its stake in a single broker's H-shares to over 20% of the broker's total H-share capital. Based on CITIC Securities' 175.81 billion shares outstanding, Xinhua Group's shareholding is approximately 4.04%, enough to rank it as the second-largest single shareholder of this "brokerage giant."
Since 2026, the enthusiasm of insurance capital for shareholding has significantly declined. According to Time Finance, only 5 insurance companies have collectively acquired stakes in listed companies 7 times this year, less than 30% of the 13 insurance companies that made over 30 acquisitions during the same period last year.
However, as the market cools amid heavy buying, insurance funds' holdings in stocks and securities investment funds have reached a record high of 6 trillion yuan for the first time. Their allocation ratio has climbed to nearly 16%, marking an all-time peak and rising quarter-over-quarter for 8 consecutive quarters.
Behind the declining number of insurance capital "takeovers" and rising equity positions, long-term capital is diversifying its entry strategies. Beyond secondary markets, funds are increasingly targeting IPO strategic allocations and cornerstone investments, expanding from financial H-shares (banks, insurers) to sectors like transportation, utilities, and emerging areas such as computing power and aviation technology.
Zhou Jin, a financial services consulting partner at Tianzhi International, told Time Finance that these changes stem from both internal subjective factors and external objective conditions. From an internal perspective, insurers' shift toward floating-return products has reduced their short-term rigidity on yield requirements. Insurers are now more willing to invest early and wait for IPO opportunities to capture higher long-term returns.
Image source: TUCHONG Creative
New China Life Insurance acquires shares in Guotai Haitong H-shares
New China Life's increased stake in Guotai Haitong (H-shares) was not achieved overnight. According to the HKEX disclosure of interests, the "New China Life" group gradually raised its holding percentage in Guotai Haitong H-shares starting from 5. The stake surpassed 16% on 5/15, 17% on 7/15, 18% on 9/3, and 19% on 9/16, finally reaching 20% on 9/29. The number of shares held increased from 5.6 billion to 7.1 billion.
From transaction details, the increase on 9 month 29 was executed by New China Asset Management; New China Asset (Hong Kong) did not participate. Funding came from insurance liability reserves. The increase involved only 995.96 shares, representing approximately 0.28% of Guotai Haitong's H-share capital. After the change in equity, the "New China Group" total holding increased from 19.96% to 20.24%. As of 9 month 29, New China Insurance's book balance for Guotai Haitong H-shares was 89.70 billion yuan, accounting for 0.48% of New China Insurance's total assets as of the end of Q2 2026.
Sustained capital commitment hinges on the underlying fundamentals of the target. Guotai Haitong was formed through the merger of Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities. As of the end of the first half of 2026, its total assets reached 2.5 trillion yuan, ranking first among domestic securities firms. In the first half of 2026, Guotai Haitong generated revenue of 471.63 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 97.56%, and recorded net profit attributable to parents of 202.60 billion yuan, up 28.74% year-over-year, setting a new historical high for the same period.
As of the close on 10/9, Guotai Haitong H-shares closed at 14.23 HKD per share, trading at a significant discount to A-shares at 16.81 CNY per share. The dividend yield over the past 12 months was approximately 5.22%.
An unnamed insurance industry insider told Time Finance that the combination of high dividends, low valuations, and merger-and-acquisition synergies aligns closely with the asset allocation preferences under the FVOCI (Fair Value Through Other Comprehensive Income) strategy for insurance capital. Under this approach, dividend income is recognized in current-period profit, while market value fluctuations are recorded in other comprehensive income, avoiding direct impact on the current-period income statement.
Notably, New China Life Insurance also shares a historical connection with Guotai Haitong. Since 2019, New China Life has been a major shareholder of Guotai Junan and held a board seat. During the merger and restructuring of the two brokerages, it continued to increase its holdings in both companies' H-shares. Currently, Chen Yijiang, General Manager of New China Asset Management, still serves as a director of Guotai Haitong.
Insurance capital's "shareholding" activity cools down within the year.
Shidai Finance's review of data disclosed by the Insurance Association reveals that as of 10/10, a total of 5 insurers made stake acquisitions this year, totaling 7 instances and covering 6 listed companies.
The first major stake acquisition by insurance capital this year occurred in 1. CPIC Life Insurance increased its holdings in Shanghai Airport (600009.SH) via block trades, acquiring 7242.4 shares. Combined with its related parties, its total shareholding rose to 5.00%.
Following Ping An Life, which increased its stake in China Life Insurance (02628.HK) H-shares through Ping An Asset Management to 10% on 2/3, further raising it to 15% on 5/20. As of 5/20, Ping An Life's book balance for China Life Insurance H-shares stood at 293.57 billion yuan.
Notably, mutual shareholding among insurers is no longer an isolated case this year. While Ping An Life Insurance took a stake in China Life's H shares, products under China Life increased their holdings in China Ping An (601318.SH) A-shares by over 4300 thousand shares in the first quarter of 2026, becoming its 10th largest shareholder. At the same time, two funds under New China Life Insurance increased their combined holdings in PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited (601319.SH) A-shares by more than 1900 thousand shares. "Insurance buying insurance" has shifted from an isolated incident to a widespread phenomenon.
Entering the third quarter, the baton of shareholding has been passed to smaller and medium-sized insurers. In 7, Fude Property Insurance and its concert party, Fude Technology, acquired a total of 10% stake in YaKang Shares (301085.SZ) via agreement transfer, with a total price of 2.59 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 30% of the company's book balance of equity assets as of the end of Q2 2026. YaKang Shares is a third-party service provider in the field of computing infrastructure comprehensive services. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved operating revenue of 8.25 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.92%, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 4961.89 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 176.29%.
In 8, Lian Life Insurance agreed to acquire approximately 7375.56 shares of Zhongshan Public Utilities (000685.SZ) from its controlling shareholder, Zhongshan Investment Holding, raising its stake to 8.16%. The ultimate controlling person of the listed company remains unchanged after the transaction. In 9, New China Life Insurance made two acquisitions: first, it increased its holding in AVIC Hong Kong (02357.HK) H-shares to 5.17% on 9/22; subsequently, on 9/29, it raised its stake in Guotai Haitong H-shares to 20.24%.
Raising a sign to cool down does not mean capital is exiting.
Compared to 2025, while the frequency of large stakes taken by insurance funds in 2026 dropped significantly, their target selections became more diverse.
In terms of volume, the number of shareholding events this year has shrunk significantly compared to last year's scale of 13 entities and over 30 occurrences. In terms of industry distribution, more than 80% of insurance capital's shareholding activities last year were directed toward financial H-shares such as banks and insurers. This year, among the 7 shareholding events, in addition to traditional high-dividend assets like transportation and public utilities, new sectors including computing infrastructure and aviation technology have been added to the allocation portfolio. While high dividends remain the core foundation, targets representing new quality productive forces have emerged as a new direction.
Zhou Jin, a partner at Tianzhi International specializing in financial services consulting, told Time Finance that insurance capital's market entry strategy has shifted noticeably this year. The defining characteristic has moved from "blockholding on the secondary market" to "pre-IPO/lock-in share acquisition," with the investor role evolving from "financial investor" to "strategic investor." Investment focus has also pivoted from high-dividend bank and infrastructure stocks to hard-tech enterprises driving new quality productive forces. Consequently, the number of blockholdings on the secondary market has dropped significantly compared to last year.
Although investments in IPO strategic placements and industrial funds are not counted toward shareholding threshold reporting, insurers still commit actual capital.
For example, CXMT ( 688825.SH ) listed on the STAR Market. Four insurers — PICC Property and Casualty, China Life, Postal Life Insurance, and Taikang Life — appeared on the strategic allocation list, each receiving 1154.73 万 shares. Taikang Life participated in cornerstone investments for 19 tech companies in Hong Kong this year, subscribing to nearly 26 亿 HKD. In 9, New China Life partnered with CITIC Goldstone to establish a 20 亿 yuan industrial fund in Hubei. China Life plans to invest up to 45 亿 yuan in a fund focused on artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
"The strategy of locking IPO prices for strategic placements allows insurers to better classify investments as FVOCI, mitigating the impact on profit volatility. From an objective standpoint, long-term regulatory assessments, the opening of listing channels for high-tech enterprises, and the transparent, standardized rules for cornerstone investments in Hong Kong IPOs have all created favorable institutional conditions for insurers to adjust their market entry strategies," Zhou Jin told Time Finance.
It is important to note that the decline in filing frequency does not indicate a contraction in property and casualty insurers' equity investments. According to the latest data released by the National Financial Regulatory Administration, as of the end of Q2 2026, the total balance of insurance fund utilization reached 40.82 trillion yuan, exceeding 40 trillion yuan for the first time. Within this balance, stock investments and securities investment funds totaled 6.39 trillion yuan, accounting for approximately 15.65% of the total. This marks the highest level recorded since the regulatory system began publishing such data, with consecutive quarter-over-quarter increases for 8 quarters. Additionally, as of the end of Q2 2026, the five listed insurance companies held a combined 2.82 trillion yuan in stock-related assets, an increase of over 3000 billion yuan compared to the end of 2025.
Zhou Jin told Time Finance that, overall, the positioning of insurance capital as "patient capital" and its long-term allocation model remain unchanged. Equity investment positions continue to increase, the "fixed income+" allocation strategy is ongoing, and the direction of enhancing returns through equity market opportunities has not changed.
