New China Insurance Annual Report Released: Revenue Exceeds 157 Billion, Shareholding in Trillion-Yuan Private Equity Shows Return Rate

On the evening of March 27, insurance giant Xinhua Insurance disclosed its annual report.

In 2025, Xinhua Insurance achieved an operating income of approximately 157.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19%. The 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%.

However, against the backdrop of a continuous decline in the interest rate pivot and increasing pressure on the reallocation of insurance funds, this financial report serves more as a window of observation.

On one hand, it reflects the repricing and restructuring of liability structures; on the other hand, it indicates the repositioning and accelerated entry of trillions of yuan of insurance funds into the equity market.

A thorough reading by Zhitang reveals that what is truly worth noting goes beyond profits and scale itself, but rather the subtle changes hidden in the “gaps” on both the investment and liability sides. These changes are quietly outlining the contours of a new round of allocation cycle for insurance capital.

Increase stock holdings! Increase fund holdings!

By the end of 2025, Xinhua Insurance’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 that the total investment income for the whole year of 2025 was approximately 104.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.9%; the total investment yield reached 6.6%.

As shown in the above figure, the year-on-year increase in Xinhua Insurance’s stock and fund assets was 19.70% and 36.6%, with incremental amounts of 35.657 billion yuan and 46.25 billion yuan, respectively.

This pace of allocation indicates that Xinhua Insurance significantly increased its allocation to equity assets in 2025, with incremental funds continuously concentrating on stocks and public funds.

Regarding asset allocation strategies, Xinhua Insurance revealed the following information in its annual report:

In terms of fixed income: Actively grasping stage-specific allocation opportunities, moderately extending asset duration, narrowing the asset-liability duration gap, and enriching the fixed income asset base; selectively allocating performance-stable fixed income enhancement products to moderately increase yield elasticity.

In terms of equity investment: The company has consistently adhered to rational investment, value investment, and long-term investment philosophies, actively laying out equity base asset allocations to stabilize and enhance investment returns.

Key information in the “gaps” of the financial report

Xinhua Insurance can be considered a “bold” institution among large insurance companies in equity investment. In February 2024, it formed a strong alliance with China Life to establish the Guofeng Xinghua private equity platform, marking the “first shot” for long-term entry of insurance capital into the market.

The contributors to Guofeng Xinghua are the asset management companies under China Life and Xinhua Insurance, jointly operated by the two companies with a 50%:50% shareholding ratio.

This private equity platform focused on investing in the secondary market has launched the Honghu series of funds (hereinafter referred to as “Honghu Fund”). Besides the two insurance giants as contributors, several small and medium-sized insurance companies have gradually held shares as investors, becoming a “magnet” for Chinese insurance capital.

A few days ago, China Life disclosed in its 2025 annual report that the Honghu Fund’s scale had quietly exceeded the 100 billion yuan mark by the end of 2025.

This can be regarded as the first “official announcement” of the latest scale, as the Honghu Fund officially became a member of China’s 100 billion private equity clubs, standing alongside established firms like Gao Yi Asset and Jinglin Asset.

In contrast to China Life’s “low-key” approach, as another core contributor, Xinhua Insurance exposed more operational information about the Honghu Fund in this company financial report.

In the chapter on “significant joint venture financial information,” Xinhua Insurance disclosed the total assets of Honghu Zhiyuan (i.e., the first phase of the Honghu Fund).

As shown in the above figure: The asset scale of Honghu Zhiyuan at the end of 2024 was 53.376 billion yuan, and by the end of 2025, the asset scale increased to 58.906 billion yuan.

Based on the changes in scale, the annual investment yield of Honghu Zhiyuan in 2025 is approximately 8.96%. Under the equity market environment of that year, this performance is relatively robust.

Although other series of products under the Honghu Fund are still in operation, only the first phase fund has completely experienced the entire equity market of 2025, while the other products have mostly completed fundraising and positioning within the past year, and have not yet formed a complete annual performance.

Close to full allocation

Zhitang noted that Honghu Zhiyuan’s stock positioning in 2025 was close to full allocation, with overall operations exhibiting typical characteristics of a long stock strategy.

As shown in the above figure, the asset scale of Honghu Zhiyuan at the end of 2025 was 58.906 billion yuan, with total equity of 57.44 billion yuan, indicating that the stock position was as high as 97%.

This means that the portfolio returns of the Honghu Fund are highly correlated with the performance of the equity market, with asset allocation almost entirely betting on the stock direction, and the proportion of low-volatility assets such as bonds and cash is extremely low. Under this structure, the fluctuation elasticity of the net value of the portfolio will be significantly amplified, and its performance will more directly reflect the manager’s stock selection ability and market judgment.

Dividend insurance becomes a pillar

Xinhua Insurance’s first-year premiums for long-term insurance saw significant growth in 2025.

The total first-year premium income for the year was approximately 57.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%. Among these, the first-year premiums for long-term insurance reached 37.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.7%, with the proportion of regular premium business in first-year premiums rising to 64.4%, continuing to tilt towards long-term.

Amid a continuous decline in interest rates and the narrowing space for traditional rigid income products, dividend insurance has effectively become the core tool for life insurance companies to reprice their liabilities.

Its essence is to redistribute a portion of income uncertainty back to customers, thereby freeing up liability cost space for insurance companies while maintaining sales attractiveness. Whoever can excel in dividend insurance will have a greater ability to maintain scale and control costs in the new round of liability competition; this is no longer just a matter of product selection, but a watershed for managerial capabilities.

The annual report shows: In 2025, Xinhua Insurance’s renewal premiums were approximately 134.2 billion yuan, forming a synergy with first-year business, driving overall premium income to maintain stable growth. At the same time, dividend insurance transformation has made phased progress, with its proportion in regular premium business increasing quarter by quarter, reaching 77% in the fourth quarter.

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