In "The Big Banks," CICC indicates that China Life's new business liability guarantee costs have significantly improved, maintaining an "outperform industry" rating

CICC research report pointed out that China Life (02628.HK) announced its 2025 performance, with new business value (NBV) increasing by 35.7% year-on-year to RMB 45.75 billion, and net profit attributable to shareholders increasing by 44.1% year-on-year to RMB 154.1 billion, corresponding to a single-quarter loss of RMB 13.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, which is basically in line with market expectations.

The company continues to promote the transformation of floating income-type business, with the proportion of dividend insurance in the first-year premium of individual insurance channels approaching 60% in 2025, driving the cost of new business liability guarantees down by more than 60 basis points.

CICC maintains the company's "outperform industry" rating unchanged, based on adjustments to the investment performance forecast for 2026, lowering the earnings per share for the fiscal year 2026 by 13.5% to RMB 4.46; introducing the earnings per share for the fiscal year 2027 at RMB 5.14 for the first time. The target price for China Life (601628.SH) A shares remains at RMB 60.3, and the target price for H shares remains at HKD 44.5