As listed companies complete their semi-annual report disclosures, the investment paths of insurance-backed private funds have come to light.

According to Choice data, HongHu Fund has appeared among the top ten shareholders of at least 7 listed companies, with the closely watched HongHu Fund Phase II and Phase III also making their debuts.

Industry analysts believe that as important institutional investors, insurance funds are leveraging policy support and the objective trend of declining interest rates to increase secondary market equity investments through private fund structures. This approach is expected to improve long-term portfolio structures, strengthen the dividend foundation for participating insurance products, and ultimately become genuine "patient capital" while enhancing asset-liability levels.

**Total Scale Reaches 110 Billion Yuan**

The establishment of private securities funds by insurance companies, primarily investing in secondary market stocks for long-term holding, represents the concrete implementation of insurance capital long-term investment reform pilots.

The first batch of pilots was approved in October 2023, with China Life and New China Life each contributing 25 billion yuan to jointly establish HongHu Fund Phase I. The fund officially began investing in March 2024, and by early March 2025, all 50 billion yuan had been fully deployed.

Regarding performance, New China Life disclosed partial operating conditions of HongHu Fund Phase I in its latest semi-annual report. As of the end of June 2025, HongHu Fund Phase I had total assets of 57.11 billion yuan and net assets of 55.68 billion yuan, achieving operating revenue of 1.20 billion yuan and net profit of 968 million yuan in the first half.

Meanwhile, HongHu Fund Phase II and Phase III have accelerated their market entry. HongHu Fund Phase II has a total scale of 20 billion yuan, subscribed equally by New China Life and China Life with 10 billion yuan each. HongHu Fund Phase III totals 40 billion yuan, divided into two products: No. 1 subscribed by China Life and New China Life with 11.25 billion yuan each, while No. 2's intended contributors include multiple small and medium-sized insurers.

New China Asset Management's General Manager Chen Yijiang introduced at the 2025 interim results conference that by mid-year, HongHu Fund Phase I had completed its position building and achieved good returns; Phase II had substantially completed its main position building; and Phase III launched in early July with smooth progress.

"From the first half of this year, the pilot funds' risk indicators were below benchmarks while return indicators exceeded benchmarks, achieving both functional and profitable success," Chen Yijiang stated. He emphasized that future pilot funds will leverage patient capital advantages for long-term deployment, achieving unity between functionality and profitability at higher levels.

**Continuously Increasing Dividend Stock Positions**

According to Chen Yijiang, Phase III fund investment scope covers A+H shares of large listed companies that meet criteria within the CSI A500 Index constituents. Selection standards for target companies include good governance, stable operations, relatively stable dividends, and good liquidity.

The CSI A500 Index selects 500 securities with larger market capitalizations and better liquidity from various industries as index samples, reflecting the overall performance of the most representative listed company securities across industries.

From holdings perspective, HongHu Fund Phase I continued increasing positions in Yili Group and Shaanxi Coal Industry during the first half, currently ranking among the top ten circulating shareholders of Yili Group, Shaanxi Coal Industry, and China Telecom.

Specifically, as of the second quarter end, HongHu Fund Phase I held 153 million shares of Yili Group, increasing its shareholding to 2.42% and ranking seventh among top ten shareholders; held 116 million shares of Shaanxi Coal Industry, increasing to 1.2% and ranking as the fifth largest shareholder; and held 762 million shares of China Telecom, representing 0.83% of total share capital.

Notably, HongHu Fund Phase II recently appeared among the top ten shareholders of two listed companies. As of the second quarter end, HongHu Fund Phase II newly became the seventh largest shareholder of PetroChina with 217 million shares representing 0.12% of total share capital, while also joining China Shenhua as the tenth largest shareholder with 52.21 million shares representing 0.26% of total share capital.

Additionally, according to Sinopec's announcement, HongHu Fund Phase III No. 1 appeared in the latest shareholder list on August 21 with 305 million shares as the eighth largest shareholder. Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway's announcement showed that as of August 28, HongHu Zhiyuan Phase III No. 1 newly became the company's fourth largest shareholder with 298 million shares representing 1.48% of total share capital.

Regarding dividend yields, the seven aforementioned listed companies generally maintain high dividend rates. Choice data shows that as of September 4, the latest 12-month dividend yields for Yili Group, Shaanxi Coal Industry, China Telecom, PetroChina, China Shenhua, Sinopec, and Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway were 4.33%, 6.69%, 5.96%, 5.23%, 5.92%, 4.96%, and 4.18% respectively.

In terms of market capitalization, these seven listed companies are also substantial. The smallest, Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway, exceeds 100 billion yuan in market value, while the largest, PetroChina, reaches 1.65 trillion yuan.

**Expansion of Insurance-Backed Securities Private Funds**

Since 2025, under policy encouragement, insurance capital long-term investment reform pilots have accelerated implementation. In January, the National Financial Regulatory Administration approved the second batch of pilots, with CPIC Life, Taikang Life, Sunshine Life, and related insurance asset management companies permitted to participate through contractual fund structures, totaling 52 billion yuan.

Subsequently, the Administration approved another 60 billion yuan pilot quota in March, with PICC Life, China Life, Taiping Life, New China Life, and Ping An Life approved to participate.

In May, the third batch of insurance capital long-term investment reform pilots was officially launched with a combined scale of 60 billion yuan. To date, three batches total 222 billion yuan (including approved and pending approval scales), injecting more incremental funds into the market.

Currently, seven insurance-backed private securities fund management companies have been approved, including Guofeng Xinghua (Beijing) Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. jointly established by China Life Assets and New China Assets; Taikang Wenhang (Wuhan) Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by Taikang Assets; CPIC Zhiyuan (Shanghai) Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by CPIC Assets; Hengyi Chiying (Shenzhen) Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by Ping An Asset Management; Sunshine Hengyi Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by Sunshine Assets; Taiping (Shenzhen) Private Securities Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by Taiping Assets; and PICC Qiyuan Huizhong (Beijing) Private Fund Management Co., Ltd. established by PICC Assets.

Long Ge, Associate Director of the Innovation and Risk Management Research Center at the University of International Business and Economics, pointed out that insurance capital long-term investment pilots will introduce medium- and long-term incremental funds to capital markets, enhancing market stability. Simultaneously, this helps guide insurance funds to focus on technological innovation, advanced manufacturing, and other fields, accelerating cultivation of new productive forces while alleviating insurers' solvency pressure and accounting volatility constraints, promoting the deepening of "long money, long investment" mechanisms to achieve a "win-win" situation between insurance capital appreciation and market stability.