Where will insurance funds be invested, and how will health management companies plan their business... The management team of PICC has issued a response.

Each reporter｜Yuan Yuan Each editor｜Yang Jun

On March 27, China Reinsurance (Group) Corporation held its 2025 annual performance press conference, where the management responded to hot issues of market concern.

“2025 is the final year of the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ and also the first year of the implementation of China Re’s ‘Building a First-Class’ strategy. In the face of a complex development environment and daunting reform tasks, China Re Group continues to deepen reforms and steadily promote high-quality development, taking solid steps on the journey to building a world-class insurance financial group,” said Ding Xiangqun, Chairman of China Re, during his speech at the conference.

According to data, in 2025, China Re achieved original insurance premium income of 738.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; insurance service income of 570.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%; and net profit of 63.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%.

China Re’s total assets have exceeded 2 trillion yuan

The annual report shows that in 2025, China Re achieved a net profit of 63.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 46.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. By the end of 2025, China Re’s total assets exceeded 2 trillion yuan, reaching 2027.68 billion yuan, an increase of 14.8% compared to the end of the previous year; the scale of investment assets surpassed 1.90 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.8% compared to the beginning of the year.

In terms of segments, for property and casualty insurance, in 2025, China Re P&C achieved insurance service income of 511.59 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%; achieved underwriting profit of 12.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 119.4%; comprehensive cost ratio was 97.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.3 percentage points; comprehensive claims ratio was 73.9%, a year-on-year increase of 0.9 percentage points; comprehensive expense ratio was 23.6%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.2 percentage points; and achieved net profit of 40.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%.

In 2025, China Re Life achieved insurance service income of 25.34 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%; original insurance premium income increased by 18.8% year-on-year, with regular premium income increasing by 21.0% year-on-year; achieved new business value of 8.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.5% on a comparable basis; achieved net profit of 11.77 billion yuan.

In 2025, China Re Health achieved insurance service income of 30.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%, and achieved net profit of 8.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.8%. The new business value was 7.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.5% on a comparable basis. Notably, in 2025, China Re Health was approved to establish a wholly-owned health management company. According to the annual report, its health management business achieved service income of 509 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, providing various health management services to over 9.52 million customers, with total service volume increasing by 16.9% year-on-year, and the scale and service level of health management business continued to improve.

“The establishment of a health management subsidiary is a core part of China Re’s big health and elderly care ecological construction, and a key measure for professional health insurance companies to realize ‘managed healthcare’,” said Shao Liduo, President of China Re Health. In the future, China Re Health will leverage the professional health management company to better play the dual roles of ‘health protection + health promotion’, focus on strengthening layout in the three major areas of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and rehabilitation care, and further promote the transformation of the health insurance business model from traditional expense reimbursement to managed healthcare.

Achieving total investment income of 92.99 billion yuan in 2025

On the investment side, in 2025, China Re achieved total investment income of 92.99 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%; net investment income was 59.41 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%; total investment yield was 5.6%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percentage points on a restated basis; net investment yield was 3.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percentage points on a restated basis, with a three-year average total investment yield of 4.9%.

China Re stated that the investment sector fully implements the requirements for medium- to long-term funds entering the market, actively participates in the reform pilot of long-term investment of insurance funds, and continuously optimizes the structure of secondary equity investments. By using asset securitization business as a breakthrough, it has increased efforts in alternative investment transformation and innovation. In 2025, the inter-institutional issuance scale of China Re ranked first in the insurance industry, promoting the landing of first deals and benchmark projects across multiple industries, achieving the revitalization of existing assets, optimizing corporate financing structure, and effectively integrating the construction of a multi-level securitization product system with the investment needs of insurance funds.

“Insurance funds have a long duration and large scale, with rich investment strategies and a diverse toolbox, making them an important source of patient long-term capital,” said Cai Zhiwei, Vice President of China Re. In 2026, China Re will adhere to the concept of ‘long-term investment, value investment’, focusing on the four principles of ‘stability, growth, diversification, and innovation’, further optimize asset allocation, and build a long-term, stable, and balanced investment portfolio.

From the perspective of major asset investment strategies, fixed-income investments are an important means to achieve asset-liability matching and prevent interest rate risks. In 2026, China Re will further enhance differentiated allocation and refined management of separate accounts based on the different liability funding attributes of property insurance and life insurance; equity investments are critical to stabilizing and improving investment performance, and will continue to seek progress while maintaining stability, focusing on the allocation of high-dividend stocks for OCI (Other Comprehensive Income), while concentrating on growth opportunities embedded in the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’, strengthening research on key industries and sectors, and reasonably planning TPL stock allocation, to build a long-term, stable, competitive, and more balanced equity investment portfolio; in alternative investments, in 2025, China Re Group took asset securitization and physical asset investment as breakthroughs, actively promoted innovation and transformation of alternative investments, and the annual issuance scale of ABS on the exchange ranked first among insurance asset management peers, constructing a ‘three-in-one’ business model of issuance, management, and investment, effectively realizing the implementation of the central government’s requirement to revitalize existing assets and meet the effective integration of funding allocation needs.

Opportunities and Challenges in the Insurance Industry

When asked how to view the current opportunities and challenges facing the insurance industry, Ding Xiangqun stated that under the current international and domestic situation, there are three profound changes: first, the international situation is increasingly complex and variable, with more uncertainties and unpredictable factors; second, the new round of technological revolution, especially the opportunities and challenges brought by artificial intelligence, has led to deep industrial transformations, with profound changes in lifestyles and business models; third, the population structure has undergone profound changes, and China has entered a deeply aging society.

Based on the analysis and understanding of these three areas, China Re relies on the function of the insurance industry as an economic stabilizer and social stabilizer to welcome and respond to future opportunities and challenges: first, new opportunities brought by the switching of growth drivers; second, new opportunities brought by the leap in industrial development; third, new opportunities brought by the transfer of wealth allocation; fourth, new opportunities brought by changes in regional structure.

At the same time, Ding Xiangqun stated that the insurance industry also faces some challenges. “From the perspective of industry development, the supply of insurance products faces matching challenges with the risk management needs of economic and social transformation. From the perspective of the financial market, the prolonged low interest rates and potential increases in volatility pose challenges to asset-liability management and financial soundness. From the perspective of the technological environment, artificial intelligence may bring disruptive challenges to the traditional insurance industry.”

Ding Xiangqun also stated that these difficulties and challenges are mostly issues in development and transformation, which can be resolved through efforts. China Re will maintain a strong belief in success, proactively take action, seek certainty amid uncertainty, and continuously shape new momentum and new advantages for high-quality development. It should be said that challenges also serve as motivation; the company will face opportunities and challenges head-on and turn them into a winning force for the company’s development.

Cover image source: Every Media Library