Sunshine Insurance recently released its 2025 first-half results, revealing a complex picture of growth overshadowed by compliance concerns. The company reported total premium income of 80.81 billion yuan, up 5.7% year-on-year, net profit of 3.39 billion yuan, up 7.8%, and embedded value of 128.49 billion yuan, rising 11.0% from year-end. While these figures appear impressive, underlying issues cast shadows over the performance.

Behind these growth metrics lie persistent regulatory penalties, management team changes, and structural business challenges. During the first half of 2025, Sunshine Insurance's subsidiaries accumulated over 30 penalty notices with fines exceeding 7.6 million yuan, highlighting escalating compliance management issues.

**First-Half Net Profit Approaches 3.4 Billion Yuan**

Sunshine Insurance's 2025 interim performance demonstrates a "strong life insurance, stable property insurance" pattern. The group maintained steady growth momentum in the first half of 2025, with total premiums exceeding 80.8 billion yuan and net profit approaching 3.4 billion yuan. These core metrics indicate the company achieved a favorable balance between scale and efficiency, though growth rates still lag behind industry leaders.

Life insurance business, serving as the value creation core, achieved total premium income of 55.44 billion yuan, up 7.1% year-on-year. New business value reached 4.01 billion yuan, surging 47.3% on a comparable basis. The significant improvement in new business value margin demonstrates clear product structure optimization results.

The most notable performance came from new business value (NBV), reaching 4.01 billion yuan in the first half, jumping 47.3% on a comparable basis. This figure far exceeds industry averages, indicating substantial improvement in life insurance business quality. Individual insurance channels became the primary value growth engine, implementing the "one body, two wings" strategy and achieving total premiums of 15.34 billion yuan, up 12.1%. Floating return and protection products accounted for over 50%, rising 26 percentage points year-on-year, showing clear product structure optimization.

Bancassurance channels maintained steady development, generating total premium income of 35.44 billion yuan, up 4.2%. Among regular premium products, floating return products comprised 27.1%, up 11 percentage points year-on-year, with continued business quality improvement. The increased proportion of regular premiums in bancassurance channels indicates enhanced business sustainability.

For property insurance, Sunshine Property Insurance achieved original premium income of 25.27 billion yuan, up 2.5%. The comprehensive cost ratio reached 98.8%, improving 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, with underwriting profit of 290 million yuan, up 42.4%. While the comprehensive cost ratio improved marginally, it still hovers near the break-even line.

Business structure optimization became evident: non-motor insurance business proportion exceeded 50% for the first time, reaching 50.6%. Non-motor original insurance premium income totaled 12.78 billion yuan, up 12.5%, with a comprehensive cost ratio of 99.7%, achieving underwriting profitability. Non-motor business developed rapidly, though profitability requires further enhancement.

Motor insurance business continued structural optimization, with household vehicle premium proportion rising 3 percentage points year-on-year, and new energy vehicle insurance premium proportion increasing 2.1 percentage points. Motor insurance comprehensive cost ratio reached 98.1%, improving 1.6 percentage points year-on-year, generating underwriting profit of 260 million yuan. Motor insurance business structure optimization accelerated, with faster new energy track positioning.

**Gap with Leading Insurers Persists**

Financial reports reveal that property insurance remains Sunshine Insurance's weakness. In 2024, the company's property insurance business exhibited typical "revenue growth without profit increase" characteristics. Property insurance achieved original premium income of 48.2 billion yuan, up 6.1%, but the comprehensive cost ratio reached 99.7%, approaching the break-even threshold.

This contrasts significantly with industry leaders. In 2024, Ping An's property insurance comprehensive cost ratio stood at 98.1%, demonstrating superior cost control capabilities. Sunshine Property Insurance's cost management abilities clearly lag behind industry leaders.

In the first half of 2025, while Sunshine Property Insurance's comprehensive cost ratio improved to 98.8%, it remained close to the break-even line, with underwriting profit of only 290 million yuan. The relatively low absolute underwriting profit value indicates urgent need for profitability enhancement.

On the investment side, Sunshine Insurance's performance also trails leading peers. In 2024, the company's total investment return rate reached 4.3%, showing year-on-year improvement but still significantly below Ping An (5.8%) and PICC (5.6%). The investment return gap exceeding 1.5 percentage points highlights the long road ahead for investment capability building.

In the first half of 2025, Sunshine Insurance's total investment income reached 10.70 billion yuan, up 28.5%, with annualized total investment return rate of 4.0% and annualized comprehensive investment return rate of 5.1%. While showing improvement, the significant investment return volatility reflects Sunshine Insurance's shortcomings in asset allocation and risk management capabilities.

**Compliance Shortcomings Require Attention**

Additionally, Sunshine Insurance's management team underwent major changes in the first half of this year. In March 2025, Executive Director and Vice Chairman Zhao Zongren and Executive Director Wang Yongwen resigned due to age reasons. Core management changes may impact strategic continuity.

Zhao Zongren joined the company in 2007, serving as a key partner to founder Zhang Weigong, leading risk control and strategy. Wang Yongwen joined in 2005 from the PICC system, serving in various key positions including audit officer and Sunshine Property Insurance general manager. The departure of these veteran figures represents significant loss of experience and management wisdom.

These changes mark the gradual exit of the founding management team, but current Chairman Zhang Weigong (62) and General Manager Li Ke (61) remain over 60, with unresolved aging issues in the core executive team structure, testing management stability. The aging executive team structure requires urgent talent pipeline development.

Meanwhile, Sunshine Insurance faces a compliance crisis. In the first half of 2025, Sunshine Life and Sunshine Property Insurance accumulated over 30 penalty notices with fines exceeding 7.6 million yuan, revealing clear compliance management shortcomings requiring internal control mechanism improvements.

Since August alone, two subsidiaries and related responsible persons have been fined over 3 million yuan. On August 1, the Ningbo Bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration fined Sunshine Life 2.21 million yuan for violations including providing false reports and inadequate fund utilization management. Multiple penalties for similar issues indicate insufficient corrective measures.

These problems are not recent developments. According to public information, since 2020, Sunshine Insurance subsidiaries and branches have received over 150 penalty notices from banking and insurance regulatory systems, with cumulative fines exceeding 20 million yuan. Long-standing compliance issues highlight the need for improved corporate governance standards.

As the silver economy's potential emerges, residents' insurance demand upgrades, and technology continues evolving, the insurance industry faces new growth curves. For Sunshine Insurance, capitalizing on these opportunities depends on effectively addressing current challenges. Industry opportunities coexist with company challenges, making transformation urgent.

In September 2025, Sunshine Insurance was included in the Hang Seng Composite Index and may enter Stock Connect. The sharp contrast between new capital market opportunities and persistent corporate governance issues highlights the need for synchronized progress in capital market recognition and corporate governance improvement.