Source: International Finance News
Insurance capital makes another stake acquisition!
On 10 9, New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. announced that on 9 29, it increased its holdings of 40,000 shares of Guotai Haitong H-shares via central bidding transactions in the secondary market. Following this increase, New China Life and its concert parties collectively hold 500 million Guotai Haitong H-shares, representing approximately 20.24% of the listed company's H-share capital, constituting a major shareholding disclosure.
This marks Xinhua Insurance's second takeover bid this year, following its stake acquisition in AVIC Hong Kong (H-shares) in late 9. However, across the industry, according to a survey by International Finance News, as of 10/10, insurance companies have made 5 bids for listed firms this year—a notable slowdown compared to last year's 13 companies making over 30 bids.
Shareholding exceeds 20%
When an insurance company "举牌" a publicly listed company's stock, it means the insurer holds, or jointly holds with its affiliates and persons acting in concert, 5% of the company's total issued shares. The insurer must notify the listed company and issue a public announcement within 3 days each time it increases its holding by another 5%, as required by applicable laws and regulations.
New China Life Insurance Company Limited (NCL) stated that the entity participating in the acquisition of Guotai Haitong shares is New China Asset Management. New China Asset Management (Hong Kong) did not participate in this increase; both entities serve as trustees for NCL. As the controlling shareholder of these two companies, New China Asset Management and New China Asset Management (Hong Kong) are considered related parties and acting in concert with NCL.
Prior to this equity change, New China Life Insurance held 2.35 billion H-shares of Guotai Haitong via New China Asset Management, accounting for approximately 6.71% of the company's total H-share capitalization. Additionally, it held 4.65 billion H-shares through New China Asset Management (Hong Kong), representing about 13.25% of the total H-share capitalization. In aggregate, New China Life Insurance and its concert parties held a combined 7 billion H-shares of Guotai Haitong, representing approximately 19.96% of the company's total H-share capitalization.
Following this change in rights, New China Life Insurance and its concert parties, New China Asset Management and New China Asset Management (Hong Kong), collectively hold 7.10 billion H-shares of Guotai Haitong, representing approximately 20.24% of the listed company's H-share capitalization, reaching the disclosure threshold.
New China Life Insurance stated that, in accordance with relevant regulations, it plans to include its investment in Guotai Haitong in equity-class asset management. As of 9 month 29, the book balance of New China Life's holdings in Guotai Haitong H shares was 89.70 billion yuan, representing 0.48% of the company's total assets at the end of the previous quarter. As of the end of the second quarter, the book balance of New China Life's equity-class assets was 4402.75 billion yuan, accounting for 24.34% of the company's total assets at the end of the previous quarter.
An analysis revealed that New China Life Insurance increased its holdings of Haithong Securities' freely tradable H-shares on the secondary market via centralized bidding in 2024, 11. The company acquired 400 million shares, bringing its total holding to 1.71 billion H-shares, representing approximately 5.02% of the listed company's H-share capital and marking the first instance of triggering a mandatory disclosure threshold.
Following the merger of Guotai Junan and Haitong Securities, New China Life Insurance continued to increase its holdings, with multiple consecutive months of adding positions in the combined entity's H-shares since the beginning of this year.
Disclosure data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows that New China Life Insurance and its concert parties increased their holdings in Guotai Junan's H shares, surpassing 16% on 5/15, 17% on 7/15, 18% on 9/3, 19% on 9/16, and finally crossing the 20% threshold on 9/29.
According to Choice data, as of the close on 10/9, Guotai Haitong's H-shares closed at 14.23 HKD/share, up 1.50% for the day. The dividend yield over the past 12 months was 4.11%, placing it in the high range, with a total market capitalization of 2502 billion HKD.
Cooling of insurance capital share acquisitions
This marks the second time New China Life has made a bid this year. On 9/22, just recently, New China Life increased its holdings of unrestricted tradable H shares in AVIC Industry through centralized bidding on the secondary market by 1687.6 million shares, accounting for approximately 0.27% of the company's total issued H share capital.
Upon completion of the increase, New China Life Insurance holds a total of 3.21 billion H shares in AVIC Industry Holdings, representing approximately 5.17% of the company's H share capital, triggering a public disclosure requirement.
At the 2026 mid-year results conference held in 8, Xinhua Asset Management President Chen Yijiang stated that the company is actively responding to the call for medium- and long-term capital to enter the market: First, we are continuing to leverage opportunities from the long-term capital reform pilot. The Honghu Fund has contributed a total of 462.5 billion yuan, using stable and substantial dividends as the cornerstone of its long-term investment portfolio.
Second, we continue to increase allocations to high-dividend assets. In particular, during the market correction in the first half of this year, the company actively increased its holdings in equity assets focused on dividends and new quality productive forces, firmly acting as a value discoverer in China's capital markets.
However, from an industry-wide perspective, the pace of insurance capital making block trades in the secondary market has slowed significantly this year. According to statistics compiled from official announcements on the China Insurance Association website, as of 10/10, only Ping An Life, CPIC Life, Fude Property, Lian Life, and New China Life—5 insurers in total—have made 9 block trades in listed companies this year. In the same period last year, 13 insurers conducted 31 block trades.
Zhang Xiaotong, Co-Chief Analyst of Non-Banking Finance at China Merchants Securities, stated that after two years of peak share acquisitions by insurers, the pace has slowed significantly this year. The core reason is: 2025 high-dividend assets saw concentrated allocation, creating a high base and narrowing room for new acquisitions. At the same time, insurers have expanded their investment focus from high-yield bank and infrastructure stocks to hard tech and other new quality productive forces, shifting more capital toward offline IPO subscriptions and strategic placements in IPOs, while increasing investments in cutting-edge sectors such as semiconductors, AI, advanced equipment, and biomedicine.
Taking CXMT, a leading domestic DRAM (dynamic random access memory) manufacturer, as an example, Zhang Xiaotong noted that insurance funds participated across multiple stages, including private placements, strategic allocations, and offline issuance, generating total unrealized gains exceeding 100 billion yuan. As key growth drivers for the future, science and technology innovation sectors are becoming core engines of economic expansion. The deep investment by insurance funds in high-quality tracks aligned with national industrial upgrading and possessing long-term growth potential reflects forward-looking, strategic asset allocation based on sound economic trend analysis.
