On the evening of March 27, life insurance giant NCI disclosed its annual report.
In 2025, NCI achieved operating income of approximately 157.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19%. Equity attributable to the parent company's shareholders exceeded 100 billion yuan, reaching 111.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%.
But against the backdrop of a continuously declining interest rate center and increasing pressure for insurance funds to reallocate assets, this financial report serves more like an observation window.
On one hand, there is the repricing and restructuring of the liability side structure; on the other hand, there is the repositioning and accelerated entry of trillion-level insurance funds into the equity market.
Zishitang found after reading through that what is truly worth attention is not just the profit and scale itself, but the subtle changes hidden in the &#34;gaps&#34; between the investment and liability ends. These changes are quietly outlining the contours of a new round of allocation cycles for insurance funds.
<h2>Increase Stock Holdings! Increase Fund Holdings!</h2>
As of the end of 2025, NCI's investment asset scale exceeded 1.84 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.0% compared to the end of the previous year.
The annual report also disclosed: total investment income for the full year of 2025 was approximately 104.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.9%; the total investment yield reached 6.6%.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/c2af2457-9db4-4c39-a2cf-68ef0ba46272.jpeg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="Image" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/c2af2457-9db4-4c39-a2cf-68ef0ba46272.jpeg"/>
As shown in the figure above, NCI's year-on-year increases in holdings of stock assets and fund assets were 19.70% and 36.6% respectively, with increments of 35.657 billion yuan and 46.25 billion yuan.
This pace of increased allocation indicates that NCI significantly increased its allocation to equity assets in 2025, with incremental funds continuously concentrating in stocks and public funds.
Regarding asset allocation strategy, NCI revealed the following information in its annual report:
Fixed income: Actively seizing phased allocation opportunities, moderately extending asset duration, narrowing the asset-liability duration gap, and bolstering the fixed income asset base; opportunistically allocating to fixed income enhancement products with stable performance, moderately increasing return elasticity.
Equity investment: The company has consistently adhered to the principles of rational investment, value investment, and long-term investment, actively deploying equity asset allocation for the core base and stabilizing and increasing investment income.
<h2>Key Information in the &#34;Gaps&#34; of the Financial Report</h2>
NCI can be considered a &#34;bold&#34; institution among large insurance companies in terms of equity investment. In February 2024, its &#34;strong alliance&#34; with China Life established the Guofeng Xinghua private equity platform, firing the &#34;first shot&#34; for long-term entry of insurance funds into the market.
The investors in Guofeng Xinghua are China Life and asset management companies under NCI, jointly operated by the two companies with a 50%:50% shareholding ratio.
This private equity platform, which focuses on investing in the secondary market, has issued the Honghu series funds (hereinafter referred to as &#34;Honghu Funds&#34;). In addition to the two insurance behemoths as investors, some small and medium-sized insurance companies have also become investors, gradually becoming a &#34;magnet&#34; for China's insurance funds.
Several days ago, China Life disclosed in its 2025 annual report that the scale of the Honghu Funds had exceeded the 100 billion yuan mark by the end of 2025.
This can be considered the first &#34;official announcement&#34; of the latest scale, with Honghu Funds officially becoming a member of China's hundred-billion-yuan private equity firms, sitting firmly in the hundred-billion-yuan club alongside established private equity firms like Gaoyi Assets and Jinglin Assets.
Compared to China Life's &#34;low-key&#34; approach, NCI, as the other core investor, &#34;exposed&#34; more operational information about the Honghu Funds in this company financial report.
In the &#34;Financial Information of Significant Joint Ventures&#34; chapter, NCI disclosed the total assets of Honghu Zhiyuan (the first phase of the Honghu Funds).
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/fecfbc8b-aba0-4a45-ba5e-c8c7422f8b1b.jpeg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="Image" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/fecfbc8b-aba0-4a45-ba5e-c8c7422f8b1b.jpeg"/>
As shown in the figure above: The asset scale of Honghu Zhiyuan was 53.376 billion yuan at the end of 2024, and it increased to 58.906 billion yuan at the end of 2025.
Calculated from the above scale changes, Honghu Zhiyuan's annual investment return in 2025 was approximately 8.96%. In the equity market environment of that year, this performance was at a relatively stable level.
Although there are other series of products operating under the Honghu Funds, only the first phase of the fund has fully experienced the equity market for the entire year of 2025. Most other products have completed fundraising and portfolio construction sequentially within the past year and have not yet formed a full annual performance.
<h2>Approaching Full Position</h2>
Zishitang noted that Honghu Zhiyuan's stock position in 2025 was close to a full position, and its overall operation exhibited typical characteristics of an equity long strategy.
As shown in the figure above, at the end of 2025, Honghu Zhiyuan's asset scale was 58.906 billion yuan, and its total equity was 57.44 billion yuan, meaning a stock position of up to 97%.
This implies that the portfolio's returns are highly tied to the trend of the equity market. The asset allocation is almost entirely bet on the stock direction, with a very low proportion of low-volatility assets such as bonds and cash. Under such a structure, the volatility of the portfolio's net value will be significantly amplified, and its performance will more directly reflect the manager's stock selection ability and market judgment.
<h2>Dividend-Paying Insurance Becomes a Pillar</h2>
NCI's first-year premium for long-term insurance achieved significant growth in 2025.
The first-year premium income for the full year was approximately 57.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%. Among them, the first-year regular premium for long-term insurance was 37.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.7%. The proportion of regular premium business in the first-year premium increased to 64.4%, and the structure continued to tilt towards long-term.
Against the backdrop of continuously declining interest rates and narrowing space for traditional rigid-return products, dividend-paying insurance has effectively become the core lever for life insurance companies to reprice their liabilities.
Its essence is to redistribute a portion of return uncertainty to customers, thereby creating room for liability costs for insurance companies, while retaining attractiveness on the sales side. Companies that can successfully develop dividend-paying insurance are more capable of stabilizing scale and controlling costs in the new round of liability competition, which is no longer a product selection issue but a watershed for operational capability.
The annual report shows that in 2025, NCI's renewal premiums were approximately 134.2 billion yuan, which, in synergy with first-year business, led to stable growth in overall premium income. Meanwhile, the transformation to dividend-paying insurance has made phased progress, with its proportion in regular premium business increasing quarter by quarter and reaching 77% in the fourth quarter.

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Against the backdrop of a continuously declining interest rate center and increasing pressure for insurance funds to reallocate assets, this financial report serves as an observation window

- On the evening of March 27, Xinhua Insurance released its annual report, showing a revenue of approximately 157.8 billion yuan in 2025, a 19% increase year-over-year.  
- The company reported an increase in investment assets and a significant shift in asset allocation towards equities, with both stock and fund allocations rising sharply during the year.  
- Xinhua Insurance's transformation in the dividend insurance sector has driven substantial growth in first-year premium income, as the long-term insurance business begins to dominate its premium structure.

NCI Annual Report Released: Revenue Exceeds 157 Billion Yuan, Returns on Billion-Yuan Private Equity Stake Exposed