– Operating Results and Value Creation Improved in Stability
– and the Foundation for High-Quality Development Continued to be Consolidated
2024 Interim Results Highlights:
– GWPs increased by 12.8% YoY to RMB76.46 billion;
– Insurance revenue increased by 4.4% to RMB31.49 billion;
– Net profit attributable to equity owners of the parent increased by 8.6% to RMB3.14 billion;
– Embedded value was RMB112.64 billion, up 8.2% from the end of last year on a comparable basis;
– The annualised comprehensive investment yield was 7.2% and the annualised total investment yield was 3.6%;
– As of the end of June 2024, the number of active customers was approximately 30.784 million.
Sunshine Insurance Group Company Limited (Sunshine Insurance or the Company, and its subsidiaries collectively the Group; HKG: 6963) announces the unaudited interim results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the Group) for the six months ended 30 June 2024.
In the first half of 2024, China’s national economy operated in overall stability, achieving progress amid stability. New growth drivers accelerated, and high-quality development gained new strides. The insurance industry, as an important part of the economic system, exhibited a positive development trend, with supply and demand driving the continuous growth of market size. As the only listed traditional insurance company among the 205 mainland insurance companies established in this century, the Group seized the opportunities arising from economic improvement and the increasing demand for insurance. The Group promoted steady growth across various businesses, continuously enhanced its value creation capability and maintained a good development momentum. During the Reporting Period, the gross written premiums of the Group were RMB76.46 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, and the insurance revenue reached RMB31.49 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. The net profit attributable to equity owners of the parent was RMB3.14 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. The embedded value of the Group was RMB112.64 billion, up 8.2% from the end of the previous year. The annualised total investment yield of 3.6% and annualised comprehensive investment yield of 7.2%. As of the end of June 2024, the Group’s active customers were 30.784 million.
The further consolidation of core business realized the leap in its value creation capability
In the first half of 2024, the Group firmly adhered to the path of high-quality development and high-value growth, and continued to promote the “New Sunshine Strategy” with “Technological Sunshine”, “Valuable Sunshine” and “Caring Sunshine” as the core. It created the unique core competitiveness of Sunshine through model innovation. As a result, the operating results achieved steady growth, the value creation capability saw a leap, the core competence of the main business of insurance has been further stabilized and enhanced, and the overall market competitiveness of the Group has been effectively improved.
In terms of life insurance business, Sunshine Life kept pursuing value-oriented development, steadily implemented the strategy of “New Sunshine”, thereby continuously consolidating the advantage of diversified channel development and achieving initial efforts in the transformation and development of sales-force. Meanwhile, Sunshine Life strengthened the linkage between assets and liabilities, while it also upgraded and optimized product and service system. The operation showed a positive momentum of “steady improvement” and “improving quality while maintaining stability”. During the Reporting Period, GWPs reached RMB51.76 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%; the value of new business was RMB3.75 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39.9%; the GWPs from the individual insurance channel amounted to RMB13.69 billion, a year-on-year growth of 25.5%, of which, FYRPs amounted to RMB3.58 billion, a year-on-year growth of 18.5%; In terms of worksite marketing, FYRPs increased by 42.7% year-on-year. The synergistic development of multiple channels has resulted in rapid growth in overall value, a steady recovery in effective manpower and a sustained increase in agent productivity.
In terms of property and casualty insurance business, Sunshine P&C adhered to the development concept of “seeking progress amidst quality”, and solidly pushed forward the implementation of the “New Sunshine” strategy, and continuously consolidated a solid foundation for high-quality development. During the Reporting Period, Sunshine P&C achieved the stable growth of business, continued to optimized its business structure and maintained a good quality. The original premium income (OPI) was RMB24.65 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 12.4%; the proportion of non-automobile insurance premiums was 46.1%, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.8 percentage points; the proportion of personal vehicle premiums to the automobile insurance was 62.4%, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percentage points. The underwriting combined ratio was 99.1% and the underwriting profit was RMB0.2 billion.
In terms of asset management, the Group upholds the philosophy of long-term value investment, and continuously optimizes the asset-liability management system. By harnessing the full-range investment qualifications and diversified investment capabilities, the Company maintains a clear strategic focus to develop the strategic asset allocation. Furthermore, it keeps enhancing its investment research capacity and carry out tactical asset allocation scientifically and flexibly under the premise of strictly managing investment risks, to create long-term, stable, and sustainable investment performance for insurance funds. During the Reporting Period, the Group’s investment performance remained stable. And achieved total investment income of RMB8.33 billion, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, with annualised total investment yield of 3.6% and annualised comprehensive investment yield of 7.2%.
The digital transformation continued to be deepened with customer experience and operational efficiency improved consistently
Technology is a key force in promoting the development of the financial industry and an important source of power for economic development. During the Reporting Period, in order to improve customer experience, improve operational efficiency and management, the Company made great efforts on “artificial intelligence+”, achieved breakthroughs in AI applications in key areas, and continued to deepen its digital transformation.
In terms of sales support, it optimized and upgraded the property and casualty insurance as well as life insurance sales management platform. The property insurance set up a fully online closed-loop process for main non-automobile products from quotes to issuance, improved the digital closed-loop of marketing activities and empowered the per capita productivity improvement and efficiency. The life insurance “Know Your Insurance ” assisted agents in providing customers with coverage planning and product recommendations. In terms of customer service, the Group continuously improved its online customer service platform. The online rate of property insurance value-added service reached 96.3%. The online rate of life insurance preservation services was 96.4%. In terms of management empowerment, the Group built an intelligent risk control system across the Group, improved “non-automobile data mortality table ” system with regard to property and casualty insurance, and improved non-automobile insurance risk pricing capabilities; with regard to the life insurance, the Group created a total of 354 online risk monitoring indicators, which effectively prevented risks.
Furthermore, the Group strengthened the availability of AI data and the construction of the Sunshine Zhengyan big model, which has been further applied in customer service, intelligent claims settlement, smart office and other scenarios. Customer service robots provided customers with services such as policy search, automobile insurance claims reporting, and life insurance follow-ups, achieving a customer satisfaction rate of 90.2% on non-human service. The usage rate of the document classification and visual injury identification functions for smart claims in personal injury assessments within property insurance exceeded 80%, with a document classification accuracy rate of 95.6%. The Sunshine Office GPT has been used a total of 1.02 million times, covering 84% of employees.
The “Caring Sunshine” strategy further advanced and customer-centric mindset has been effectively implemented
“All for customers” is the business value upheld by Sunshine Insurance, and it is also the starting point of creating the “Caring Sunshine” strategy. In order to further promote the “Caring Sunshine” strategy, in the first half of 2024, Sunshine Life continued to promote the “Matrix Plan” with focus on the “three/five/seven ” product system, and to enrich the connotation of the “three/five/seven ” product system, continuously meeting the needs for insurance products in customers’ different life stages. In terms of health protection, the Group launched the exclusive term critical illness insurance for children, the high-end accident medical insurance for children and the maternal and child medical insurance to meet the health protection needs of specific groups of customers’ families and further expand the coverage of customers. In terms of aged care and wealth inheritance, the Group accelerated the layout of participating insurance products to meet customers’ differentiated savings needs. In terms of products supported by national policy, the Group enriched the supply of products such as tax-advantaged health insurance and personal pension, and promoted the policy-oriented commercial insurance to benefit more customers.
Furthermore, Sunshine Life continued to strengthen the construction of “Caring Sunshine” service system. The Group improved the service design capability from the customers’ perspective, and met the core service needs of customers. Meanwhile, in terms of service management, the Group continuously improved the efficiency of customer service, for example, promoting the service mechanism of “listening to customers”, expanded and upgraded the “customer experience officer” team, and continuously improved the capability to provide straight-through services to customers.
Sunshine P&C continues to deepen the research on customer needs, and is committed to establishing a convenient customer service system and practicing the service motto of “making services the reason for customers to choose Sunshine”. In terms of individual customers, the Group continued to deepen the customer-segmented differentiated business management system and continuously provided customers with a richer differentiated product portfolio and personalized service experience to further enhance customer stickiness. In the first half of 2024, the renewal rate of personal vehicle insurance customers was 64.2%, representing continuous year-on-year increase. The proportion of non-automobile insurance products purchased by individual auto insurance customers reached 55.5%, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percentage points. In terms of group customers, the Group continued to promote the implementation of the “Partnership Action” risk management service. In the first half of 2024, the Group provided technology-based loss mitigation and professional risk consulting services to 8,595 corporate customers and upgraded and created a full-scale risk management service model of “insurance + technology + service” to assist customers in improving their capabilities of risk management.
Actively practiced sustainable development and fully supported real economy and green transformation
Actively pursuing sustainable development and earnestly fulfilling social responsibilities are the core values of an enterprise and the key to its long-term development. In the first half of 2024, the Group took an active part in serving national strategies, continuously enhanced its support for the real economy in quality and efficiency, provided a total of RMB50.4 trillion of risk protection for the real economy, and offered more than RMB420 billion of financial support. Particularly, the Group provided risk protection of nearly RMB220 billion to approximately 18,000 micro and small enterprises; the Group offered agriculture risk protection of RMB35.3 billion, paid out claims of RMB150 million and benefited approximately 44,000 rural households; the Group provided risk protection of RMB60.2 billion for 331 “Belt and Road” projects, involving 67 countries in “Belt and Road” construction; the Group provided risk protection of approximately RMB32.6 billion for 406 sci-tech enterprises.
In the meanwhile, the Group was contributing to the green transformation and the realisation of harmonious coexistence, and continued to enrich its green insurance product and service system. In the first half of 2024, the Group provided nearly RMB8 trillion of green insurance protection for 1.22 million enterprises and individuals and offered claims support of approximately RMB2.3 billion. The Group actively responded to climate change to enhance its climate resistance. At the same time, the Group continuously improved its sustainable investment framework and policies. As of the end of June 2024, the balance of sustainable investments nearly reached RMB55 billion, of which green investment exceeded RMB19 billion.
In addition, the Group actively fulfilled its social responsibilities and participated in public the welfare. The Group gave full play to the advantages of the main business of insurance and medical resources, and actively organized and participated in various public the welfare activities in the fields of helping the student and helping the elderly. As of the end of June 2024, Sunshine Insurance built 74 “BoAi” schools in 24 provinces across the country and trained a total of 20,397 rural doctors through the “Plan to Promote Competence of 10,000 Rural Doctors”. The Group sincerely cared for employees and their families, with an accumulated amount of RMB540 million parent-supporting subsidies granted to a total of 44,182 employees.
With its strong comprehensive strength and positive development momentum, on 16 August, Hang Seng Indexes Company announced its latest quarterly review results, and the Group was successfully included in the HSMSI. This change will be implemented after the market close on 6 September, 2024, and will take effect on 9 September, 2024. According to a research report by CICC, Sunshine Insurance Group is expected to be included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect due to its adherence to high standards and outstanding operating performance.
Being included in the HSCI marks a significant milestone. On one hand, it represents market recognition of Sunshine Insurance’s performance and development potential, helping to enhance the Group’s visibility in the capital markets and insurance sector. On the other hand, based on its solid fundamentals, it will attract more investors to increase their allocation to the Group’s stock, thereby improving trading liquidity.
In the second half of 2024, China will further deepen the reform through focusing on promoting a Chinese path to modernization and thoroughly explore domestic demand potential. Therefore, the economy is expected to show a sustained recovery and positive trend. In the long run, the general trend of long-term positive development of China’s economy has not changed, and the insurance industry is ushering in historic opportunities for high-quality development and will play an irreplaceable and important role.
Looking ahead, the Group will adhere to its founding aspiration of “establishing a respected century-old enterprise” and maintain its focus on core business areas. The Group steadfastly promote the “New Sunshine Strategy”, align with national policy directions and industry development trends, and actively make efforts on the five aspects including scientific and technological finance, green finance, inclusive finance, elderly care finance and digital finance. By precisely serving national strategies, supporting the real economy, and ensuring social the well-being, the Group will efficiently leverage its professional insurance advantages. It will continuously enhance Sunshine’s core competitiveness, advance high-quality development, and achieve high-value growth, injecting wisdom and vitality into the creation of a grand blueprint for a strong financial nation and the high-quality development of the financial industry.
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About Sunshine Insurance Group Company Limited
Sunshine Insurance Group Company Limited is a fast-growing private insurance service group in China. Since its establishment, the Group has prioritized value creation as its core business, dedicated to providing clients with professional risk protection and comprehensive service solutions. The Group carries out life and health insurance business through Sunshine Life, property and casualty insurance business through Sunshine P&C, and manages insurance funds through Sunshine AMC. As of 30 June 2024, the Group has been ranked among the top 500 Chinese enterprises by the China Enterprise Confederation for 13 consecutive years, entitled as one of the “Top 500 Valuable Brands in China” by the World Brand Lab for 13 consecutive years, and is also one of the five insurance companies in China that have been recognized as the well-known trademark in China and selected by Brand Finance as one of “Top 100 Most Valuable Insurance Brands”.
