On September 22, Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosure data showed that Zhao Yonggang, executive director and president of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC), bought 16,200 H-shares at HK$28.88 per share, spending about HK$467,900. After the increase, his H-share holdings rose from zero to 16,200 shares - marking the first time this president of the insurance group, whose managed assets just surpassed RMB 4 trillion, bought H-shares of the company. He was also the only buyer disclosed by the exchange that day.

Two vice presidents had entered earlier. On September 8, Vice President Ma Xin bought 6,000 H-shares at HK$29.48 each; on September 10, Vice President Yu Bin bought 10,000 shares at HK$29.16 each. Zhao Yonggang himself had previously held only 12,900 A-shares for years, with his H-share account remaining at zero. Now he shifted to H-shares with the largest single purchase among these executives. Unfortunately, the executives' hard cash has not triggered positive market feedback. As of the September 23 close, CPIC's H-shares stood at HK$28.82 - meaning all executive purchases over the past two years, from chairman to president, are currently in a floating loss position.

Compared with CPIC executives' "symbolic" increases of just over a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars each time, the real buyer comes from outside the company - rival Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.. Ping An now holds more than 12% of CPIC's H-shares, becoming the largest incremental purchaser.

Chairman's regular buying pattern

A review of recent exchange disclosures shows multiple CPIC executives have increased their holdings. The earliest was Chairman Fu Fan. On November 26, 2025, Fu bought 10,000 H-shares at HK$30.784 each, raising his holdings to 220,400 shares; on April 30, 2026, he bought another 10,000 shares at HK$34.30, lifting his stake to 230,400 shares. Within the CPIC executive team, Fu holds the most shares and is the only one who has bought twice consecutively.

This September, the baton passed to the management layer. On September 8, Ma Xin bought; on September 10, Yu Bin bought; on September 22, Zhao Yonggang bought. Within half a month, the president and two vice presidents entered the market one after another, and together with the chairman's earlier moves, CPIC's core management completed a round of "collective positioning" within the HK$28 to HK$35 price range. But the market has not responded favorably.

Calculated at the September 23 H-share closing price of HK$28.82, Zhao Yonggang's purchase price of HK$28.88 shows a slight loss of 0.2%; Yu Bin's floating loss is about 1.2%; Ma Xin's is about 2.2%; Fu Fan's November purchase last year is down about 6.4%, and his April purchase this year is down about 16%. On the A-share side, Market Development Director Zhang Yuhua bought 12,800 shares on April 10 at an average price of RMB 38.96; based on the September 24 A-share closing price of RMB 31.07, the floating loss exceeds 20%. From chairman to president, from H-shares to A-shares, no single purchase record is profitable.

Buyback not yet implemented

Behind the executives' cash commitment lies the stock's continued weakness. The company has also launched market value management measures. On April 8, 2025, CPIC announced that Chairman Fu Fan proposed repurchasing some A-shares using the company's own funds. Since then, market value management actions have followed intensively: on May 27, 2026, the company issued its "2026 Quality Improvement, Efficiency Enhancement and Return Enhancement Action Plan," proposing to improve the market value management system and promote reasonable value recovery; on July 10, the company replied on the investor interaction platform that it had formulated a "Market Value Management System," and the buyback plan had passed shareholder meeting review, intending to repurchase RMB 100 million to RMB 200 million of A-shares using self-owned funds and dedicated buyback loans, with all repurchased shares to be cancelled; on July 20, the company issued another announcement on "Firmly Supporting Capital Market Development and Enhancing Shareholder Returns," disclosing that the cash dividend ratio for 2025 had been raised to 42.41%, with plans to launch an interim dividend for the first time.

However, a year and a half after the April 2025 proposal, the RMB 100-200 million buyback has still not started. On August 17, an investor asked on the interaction platform: "The buyback approved last year has been a full year now - are you still doing it?" The company replied, "Regarding the share repurchase matter, there is currently no information to disclose." On September 16, at the Shanghai-listed companies collective investor reception day and interim results briefing, the company's investor relations team again gave the same response. As an alternative arrangement, the company has announced an interim dividend of RMB 0.42 per share, expected to be paid out in October.

The stock price has not waited. On the A-share side, CPIC closed 2025 at RMB 40.76, peaked at RMB 47.24 on January 7, 2026, then steadily declined, hit a low of RMB 27.06 on June 30, and closed at RMB 31.07 on September 24, down about 24% for the year. In late June, the A-shares fell 6.87% in a single day and H-shares fell 6.80%, both hitting yearly lows. On August 28, CPIC disclosed its 2026 interim results: net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 30.775 billion, up 10.4% year-on-year; managed assets exceeded RMB 4 trillion for the first time; new business value reached RMB 10.758 billion, up 12.7% year-on-year. The results themselves are not poor, but among the five listed insurers, the 10.4% net profit growth ranks last - during the same period, China Life Insurance grew 228.6%, New China Life Insurance grew 54%, PICC grew 38.5%, and Ping An Insurance grew 36.1%.

The gap in investment performance is even more apparent: CPIC's total investment income grew 16.1% in the first half, while China Life grew 147%, PICC grew 60%, and Ping An grew 42.3%. Vice President Su Gang admitted at the results briefing that the company's core dividend value strategy faced "extreme headwinds" in the first half - the dividend index fell about 6% while tech indices rose about 28%. After the interim report, the stock remained weak, with A-shares sliding from RMB 32.97 in early September to RMB 31.07 on September 24.

Ping An: the real big buyer

Ping An's purchases of CPIC H-shares began in August 2025, touching the disclosure threshold twice in two days: on August 8, Ping An Asset Management bought 1.1 million shares at HK$32.28 each; on August 11, Ping An Insurance bought 1.74 million shares at HK$32.07 each, raising its stake to 5.04%. This was the first time in six years that a large insurer had disclosed a stake in a peer. Half a month later, on August 29, Ping An Life increased its holdings by another 6.104 million shares at HK$35.81 each, spending about HK$219 million in a single transaction and lifting its stake to 7.14%.

Entering 2026, Ping An's buying continued. On March 25, Ping An Insurance increased its stake by 3.104 million shares at an average price of HK$32.39, spending about HK$101 million and raising its holding to 12.08%; on March 31, Ping An Life bought another 7.2 million H-shares, spending about HK$229 million. Over more than a year, Ping An's stake in CPIC H-shares has risen from 5% at the disclosure point to over 12%, making it the largest incremental buyer of CPIC H-shares.

On one side, the chairman's "regular buying" of 10,000 shares every six months; on the other, Ping An's continuous accumulation of hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. On one side, executive purchases are all underwater; on the other, a rival keeps adding exposure. CPIC's market value management framework is in place, the buyback quota has passed shareholder review, and after the HK$467,900 purchase, the market is waiting for the day the buyback truly lands.