Insurance companies' placarding activities have surged dramatically this year.

By mid-August, insurance companies had already conducted 6 placarding events, bringing the total for the year to 29. This significantly exceeds the 20 events in 2024 and surpasses the 26 events in 2020, trailing only behind the 62 events in 2015, securing at least the second-highest record in history.

Analysis shows that the 29 placarding events involved 22 listed companies, including 5 A-shares and 17 H-shares. By industry, the focus was primarily on banking, utilities, and energy sectors, with banking accounting for more than half the share. Seven banks were targeted with 14 placarding events, including China Merchants Bank H-shares, Postal Savings Bank of China H-shares, and Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares, each receiving three placarding events.

**Insurance Company Placarding Insurance Company Returns**

On August 13, Hong Kong Stock Exchange data revealed that Ping An Insurance recently increased its holdings in China Taiping Insurance H-shares by approximately 1.74 million shares at HK$32.07 per share, with a total investment of approximately HK$55.84 million. Following this increase, Ping An Insurance holds approximately 5.04% of China Taiping Insurance's H-share capital, meeting the placarding threshold. China Taiping Insurance's Hong Kong stock price is currently near historic highs, marking the first insurance company placarding after a six-year hiatus.

On August 14, Ping An Insurance stated: "The relevant investment constitutes financial investment and represents routine operations of insurance capital equity investment portfolios."

On August 13, Minsheng Life Insurance also announced that on August 11, the company increased its holdings and placarded Zheshang Bank H-shares through accounts managed by its trustee Minsheng Tonghui Asset Management Co., Ltd., with no other related parties or concert parties participating in this placarding.

Regarding management approach, Minsheng Life Insurance indicated it would incorporate the Zheshang Bank H-share placarding into equity investment management.

As of August 11, Minsheng Life Insurance held approximately 296 million Zheshang Bank H-shares, representing about 5.00022% of Zheshang Bank's H-share capital.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange equity disclosure showed that Minsheng Life Insurance purchased 1 million Zheshang Bank H-shares at an average price of HK$2.7679 per share, totaling HK$2.7679 million.

According to Minsheng Life Insurance disclosure, as of August 11, the company's book value of Zheshang Bank H-shares was RMB 1.324 billion, representing 0.93% of total assets at the end of the previous quarter.

On the same day, China Taiping Insurance's property and life insurance subsidiaries also disclosed passive placarding of Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical, which went public in Hong Kong.

On August 13, Taiping Life Insurance and Taiping Property Insurance both announced that on August 7, Guangdong Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. privatized its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Yichang Dongyang Sunshine Changjiang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (01558.HK) through absorption merger using newly issued H-shares (Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical, 06887.HK, listed by introduction) as consideration, converting their original holdings according to a specific ratio, passively triggering this placarding.

According to Taiping Life Insurance's announcement, following this placarding, Taiping Life Insurance directly holds 6.059 million Dongyang Sunshine Pharmaceutical H-shares, representing 5.38% of its H-share capital; Taiping Property Insurance directly holds 1.488 million shares, representing 1.32% of H-share capital; Taiping Life Insurance and its related parties and concert parties collectively hold 7.546 million shares, representing 6.70% of the listed company's H-share capital.

Both Taiping Life Insurance and Taiping Property Insurance stated they would incorporate this investment into equity investment management. Trustee manager Taiping Asset Management will closely monitor the company's operational status and subsequent market reactions, not excluding the possibility of additional investments in the future.

August 8 was a "highlight day" for insurance capital placarding bank stocks—Ping An Life Insurance and Hongkang Life Insurance completed third placarding events of Postal Savings Bank of China and Bank of Zhengzhou on the same day.

On August 8, Ping An Life Insurance increased its holdings by 14.141 million Postal Savings Bank of China H-shares through on-market purchases, pushing its shareholding to 15.05% of the bank's H-share capital, triggering the third placarding. On January 8 this year, Ping An Life Insurance first placarded Postal Savings Bank of China H-shares, with shareholding exceeding 5%; on May 9, it again spent over HK$110 million to increase holdings by 23.29 million shares, with shareholding exceeding 10%, constituting the second placarding.

Hongkang Life Insurance increased its holdings by 9.9 million Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares on August 8, pushing its shareholding to 15% of the bank's H-share capital, triggering the third placarding. Previously, Hongkang Life Insurance completed first and second placarding of Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares on June 27 and July 25 respectively, with shareholding successively exceeding 5% and 10%. As of August 8, it held 309 million Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares, representing 3.39% of total share capital, with latest market value of approximately HK$435 million.

Notably, Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares performed strongly this year. As of August 13 close, its stock price gained 39.5% year-to-date, significantly outperforming the Hang Seng Index.

Additionally, on August 7, Hongkang Life Insurance announced its participation in placarding Towngas Smart Energy H-shares.

August alone has seen 6 placarding events, averaging one every two days.

**Insurance Capital Placards Bank Stocks 14 Times**

Insurance capital placarding activities have accelerated dramatically this year. Analysis of China Insurance Industry Association official announcements shows that in 2024, 8 insurance companies increased holdings in 18 listed companies, triggering 20 A-share and H-share placarding events, exceeding the combined total of 2021 (1 time), 2022 (5 times), and 2023 (6 times).

Entering 2025, insurance capital placarding has intensified further. As of August 13, 13 insurance companies including Minsheng Life Insurance, Taiping Life Insurance, Hongkang Life Insurance, Taikang Life Insurance, Sinotrust Life Insurance, Lian Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, Great Wall Life Insurance, China Post Life Insurance, New China Life Insurance, Ruizhong Life Insurance, China Life Insurance, and Sunshine Life Insurance have collectively disclosed 29 placarding announcements involving 22 listed companies, significantly exceeding 2024's full-year level.

Overall, insurance capital deployment focuses mainly on energy, utilities, and banking sectors. This year, insurance capital has placarded 7 bank stocks with 14 placarding events. Ping An Insurance shows the greatest enthusiasm for bank stocks, with three of its four placarded companies from the banking sector, including three placarding events for China Merchants Bank H-shares, Postal Savings Bank of China H-shares, and two placarding events for Agricultural Bank of China H-shares. Ruizhong Life Insurance placarded China Citic Bank H-shares once, while New China Life Insurance placarded Bank of Hangzhou once. Adding the aforementioned Hongkang Life Insurance's three placarding events of Bank of Zhengzhou H-shares and Minsheng Life Insurance's placarding of Zheshang Bank H-shares.

Galaxy Securities banking analyst Zhang Yiwei noted that since 2025, insurance capital has repeatedly placarded bank stocks primarily due to banks' characteristics of low volatility, high dividends, and low valuations continuing to attract insurance capital. For insurance companies, bank stock dividend yields exceed long-term bond yields, valuation fluctuations can be included in OCI (Other Comprehensive Income) to address performance volatility, and currently H-share bank dividend yields are relatively higher.

Huatai Securities analyst Li Jian believes placarding's key lies in insurance companies' optimism about invested companies' development prospects and willingness to hold concentrated positions. If long-term equity investment standards can be met, companies can better enjoy stable investment returns. 2015 placarding was mainly driven by universal insurance expansion with high liability costs and capital consumption savings from long-term equity investments under Solvency II. The 2020 and 2024 placarding waves were motivated by increased insurance capital investment pressure amid declining interest rates, requiring investment in high-yield stocks for stable cash returns while increasing long-term equity investments helps achieve stable investment returns.

Since 2024, the insurance industry has welcomed a new placarding wave, with driving forces gradually transitioning from alleviating solvency pressure a decade ago to valuing high dividends of placarded companies. Placarded stocks since 2024 averaged 4.6% dividend yield in the previous year, the highest among all placarding waves. In interest rate decline cycles, insurance capital investment's primary principle is asset-liability duration matching, followed by emphasis on dividend stock investment to supplement cash returns. Li Jian believes placarding strategies are no exception.

University of International Business and Economics Insurance School Professor Wang Guojun stated that with current pressure on the real economy, insurance companies find it difficult to identify suitable investment targets, while listed company equity represents one of the best investment options. In the current market environment, risk-free rates continue declining while financial stocks like banks offer stable high dividends, providing significant attraction for insurance capital seeking steady returns. This explains the surge in insurance capital placarding events in the first half of this year.