Following its stake acquisition in AVICHINA, insurance giant New China Life Insurance has now acquired a stake in GTHT. On October 9, information disclosed on the official website of the Insurance Association of China showed that on September 29, New China Life Insurance acquired a stake in GTHT H-shares. New China Life Insurance increased its holding of 9.9596 million GTHT H-shares through the Stock Connect, accounting for approximately 0.28% of GTHT's total issued H-share capital. After the increase, New China Life Insurance and its persons acting in concert, New China Asset Management and New China Asset Management (Hong Kong), collectively hold 709.61272 million GTHT H-shares, representing approximately 20.24% of GTHT's H-share capital.
New China Life Insurance's consecutive stake acquisitions have drawn attention from the capital markets, as the cooling of insurance capital stake acquisitions has been quite evident this year. According to information disclosed by the Insurance Association of China, insurance capital has acquired stakes nine times since the beginning of 2026. Among this year's insurance capital stake acquisitions, Ping An Life is the main player, having acquired stakes four times, with targets including Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (ASX: 01288; HKEX: 01288) and China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. (ASX: 03968; HKEX: 03968), while China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (ASX: 02628; HKEX: 02628) had stakes acquired in it twice. China Pacific Insurance acquired a stake in Shanghai International Airport Co., Ltd. (ASX: 600009; SSE: 600009), Fude Property Insurance acquired a stake in Beijing Asiacom Information Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 301085; SZSE: 301085), Lian Life Insurance acquired a stake in Zhongshan Public Utilities Group Co., Ltd. (ASX: 000685; SZSE: 000685), and New China Life Insurance acquired stakes in AVICHINA Industry & Technology Company Limited (ASX: 02357; HKEX: 02357) and Guotai Haitong Securities Co., Ltd. (ASX: 02611; HKEX: 02611).
In terms of quantity, compared with more than 30 stake acquisitions throughout 2025, insurance capital appears to no longer be as enthusiastic about acquiring stakes this year.
From High-Frequency Stake Acquisitions to a Marked Cooling
According to previous analysis, insurance capital acquired stakes in listed companies at least 33 times in 2025, far exceeding the 20 times recorded in all of 2024. Several characteristics emerged regarding the targets: they feature high dividend yields and stable cash flows, with Hong Kong stocks becoming the main battlefield. Judging from this year's insurance capital stake acquisitions, the asset characteristics favored by insurance capital remain largely consistent with last year. In terms of transaction methods, competitive bidding was the primary approach, with some stake acquisitions conducted through negotiated transfers and block trades. In terms of the acquiring entities, large insurance companies remain the main force, while the participation of small and medium-sized insurers has declined.
Industry insiders believe this change is not accidental. After intensive stake acquisitions in 2024 and 2025, insurance capital is reassessing the "cost-effectiveness" and risks of stock market investment. This year, the capital markets have been successively impacted by geopolitical crises and possible shifts in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. At the end of February, the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out, crude oil surged, triggering violent swings in global stock markets. Meanwhile, U.S. inflation data climbed further, prompting the Federal Reserve to choose to raise interest rates at its September policy meeting. As the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield broke through 5.2%, highly valued technology stocks brought structural adjustment pressure. These shocks were also reflected in stock market data. In the first three quarters of this year, on the A-share side, the Shanghai Composite Index, Shenzhen Component Index, and ChiNext Index all declined, falling 3.19%, 4.71%, and 2.12% respectively. On the H-share side, the Hang Seng Index fell 3.97%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped more than 20%.
The Reasons Behind the Pace Adjustment
The cooling of insurance capital stake acquisitions is influenced by multiple factors. First, after valuation recovery, many dividend stocks have seen reduced allocation cost-effectiveness. After the "September 24 State Council Information Office press conference" in 2024, Chinese assets experienced a strong rally. Following that round of gains, the valuations of some targets had already recovered somewhat, weakening the "cost-effectiveness" of acquiring stakes. Taking bank stocks as an example, data showed that the banking sector rose 37.55% and 10.15% in 2024 and 2025 respectively. Since the beginning of this year (as of the close on October 9, 2026), the banking sector has risen 5.30%.
Second, the pressure on equity asset allocation under the low interest rate environment has temporarily eased. To stabilize economic growth, China has entered a low interest rate market environment over the past two years. If insurance capital continues its previous asset-side allocation strategy without increasing equity asset allocation, it will be difficult to cover liability-side costs. Regulatory data on insurance fund utilization for the first quarter of 2026 showed that as of the end of the first quarter this year, the combined stock holdings of life insurance companies and property insurance companies reached 3.84 trillion yuan, already approaching the scale of active equity funds during the same period.
Finally, regulatory and accounting rule constraints remain in place. To encourage "insurance capital into the market" and "long-term money for long-term investment," policymakers have to some extent "relaxed" restrictions on the asset side for insurance capital. However, "relaxation" does not mean there are no constraints on insurance capital's asset-side investment. The allocation of equity assets affects insurers' solvency, profit volatility, and accounting treatment. At the same time, under the second phase of "C-ROSS II" (the Insurance Company Solvency Regulatory Rules (II)), regulators have adopted more refined and more risk-oriented rules for risk factors and capital occupation in insurance capital equity investment. Regarding issues such as multi-layer nesting in insurance fund utilization, it is required to follow the principle of "comprehensive penetration, penetrating to the end," identify the ultimate destination of funds, measure minimum capital based on the actual underlying assets invested, and accurately reflect the substance of their risks.
Slowing Down Does Not Equal a Turnaround
It should be noted that the cooling of insurance capital stake acquisitions does not mean that insurance capital is "bearish" on the equity market. In the short to medium term, the low interest rate environment will persist, and equity assets will remain an important allocation direction for insurance capital. Regulatory disclosure of insurance fund utilization for the third quarter of this year has not yet been released. Based on data from the first two quarters, insurance capital is still increasing its stock allocation. Looking at the asset-side allocation of five A-share listed insurers, apart from Ping An of China, other A-share listed insurers all increased their proportion of stock investment. The overall investment characteristics of equity assets are "fixed income as the foundation plus high-dividend stocks plus technology growth stocks."
It is foreseeable that targets with high dividend yields and stable cash flows will continue to be favored by insurance capital. Judging from insurance capital's investments in ChangXin Technology and Unitree Technology, technology companies with high growth potential will also become important options for insurance capital asset allocation. On the other hand, insurance capital will become more diversified in its equity asset allocation choices, not limited to acquiring stakes. Insurance capital can participate in equity market investment through Stock Connect ETFs, increased primary market deployment, and other methods. According to media reports, several insurers recently received the "Letter on Clarifying the Regulatory Caliber for Insurance Funds Investing in Stock Connect ETFs," which specifies that insurance institutions permitted to invest in Stock Connect stocks under regulatory rules may invest in Stock Connect ETFs, and shall refer to the relevant regulatory provisions for insurance funds investing in Stock Connect stocks, with this regulatory caliber effective from September 20.
A research report from Soochow Securities pointed out that previously insurance capital mainly invested in Hong Kong ETFs through QDII, whereas the Stock Connect channel does not occupy QDII quotas, allowing for more flexible allocation scale. Stock Connect ETFs include cross-border investment products and may become a new breakthrough for mainland insurance capital to conduct overseas investment. Of course, for mainland insurance capital, overseas high-yield fixed income assets better meet current allocation needs, and overseas equity assets are not yet sufficient to become the main allocation direction in the short term.
In addition, recently, New China Life Insurance, together with CITIC Jinshi and other institutions, established a Jinshi Technology Innovation Industry Investment Fund in Hubei with a total scale of 2 billion yuan. China Life Insurance plans to contribute no more than 4.5 billion yuan to participate in the establishment of Qingdao Chengxin Zhida Equity Investment Center (Limited Partnership), focusing on investing in high-quality unlisted equity in the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors. A recent CICC research report titled "From an International Comparative Perspective, Is China's Insurance Capital Equity Allocation Ratio Too High?" pointed out that, comparatively, China's life insurance existing liabilities are mainly traditional business with low risk tolerance, and the sector may already be overweight in equities; leading property insurance companies have solid underwriting profitability and relatively ample capital, and their equity allocation ratio is not considered high compared with overseas peers. CICC expects that life insurance funds will gradually increase liability-side risk tolerance in the future, thereby laggingly offsetting the impact of the asset side raising equity allocation in advance. This also means that in the near term, the theoretical space for the industry to continue increasing its equity allocation ratio is relatively small, and structurally further shifting toward high-dividend assets may be an important direction for balancing risks and achieving asset-liability matching as much as possible under an overweight equity state. From a longer-term perspective, if the industry's future rigid liability costs can decline further and the proportion of floating-income business can jump to levels close to those in some overseas regions, the industry's equity allocation center may still have room to rise.
Overall, the slowing pace of insurance capital stake acquisitions does not mean diminished interest in equity assets; rather, the allocation path is shifting. Against the backdrop of a continued low interest rate environment and an "asset shortage," equity investment remains an important direction for insurance capital to enhance returns. Insurance capital has always been a "stabilizer" for society and a "ballast stone" for the capital markets, injecting stability into the market and providing strong support for stabilizing the economy.