New high! China Life's profit in 2025 exceeds 154 billion yuan! Investment income significantly increases

A-share listed insurance companies’ first 2025 annual report is out. On the evening of March 25, China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. announced its performance report showing a net profit attributable to the parent company of 154.08B yuan in 2025, continuing to set new highs, with a year-on-year increase of 44.1%.

China Life stated that the company values sharing high-quality development results with investors. The board of directors proposed a final cash dividend of 6.18 yuan (including tax) per 10 shares for 2025. Combined with the interim cash dividend already paid in 2025, the total annual dividend payout is 8.56 yuan per 10 shares (including tax), with a total dividend of 24.2B yuan, up 31.7% year-on-year.

Regarding the significant growth in profits on a high base in 2025, China Life explained that the reasons include “the company’s continued deepening of asset-liability linkage, in-depth promotion of product and business diversification, scientific management of liability costs, ongoing improvement of input-output efficiency, and dynamic optimization of major asset allocation, resulting in a substantial increase in investment income.”

The annual report shows that in 2025, China Life achieved a total investment income of 387.69B yuan, an increase of 79.44B yuan from the same period in 2024, a growth of 25.8%. The increase in investment income mainly stems from “the expansion of investment asset scale and proactive investment operations.”

China Life’s total investment yield in 2025 was 6.09%, up 59 basis points from 2024. From both the insurance industry and China Life’s own perspective, this investment performance is among the best in recent years. According to Wind data compiled by Securities Times, the 6.09% total investment yield is the third-highest annual investment performance since China Life’s A-share listing in 2007, only behind 6.24% in 2015 and 11.07% in 2007.

As of December 31, 2025, China Life’s investment assets amounted to 74 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.3% from the end of 2024.

China Life stated that it will continue to enhance its investment professional capabilities, dynamically optimize major asset allocation, constantly improve the stability of the investment portfolio’s returns, and increase long-term return potential. In fixed income, the company flexibly adjusts the allocation pace and variety strategies, maintaining a steady core position. In equity investments, it vigorously promotes medium- and long-term funds entering the market, seizes market opportunities, resolutely increases equity investments, actively layouts in fields related to new productive forces, and steadily develops high-dividend stock allocations. The scale of equity investments in the public market exceeds 1.2 trillion yuan, an increase of over 450 billion yuan from early 2025.

From the perspective of asset allocation structure, China Life’s allocation ratios for bonds, fixed deposits, and debt-based financial products remain basically stable. The allocation ratio for stocks and funds (excluding money market funds) rose from 12.18% at the end of 2024 to 16.89%, mainly because the company seized market opportunities and resolutely increased equity investments, significantly boosting the scale of equity holdings.

As of the end of 2025, China Life’s total assets reached 75.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%; net assets stood at 74k yuan, up 16.7% year-on-year.

In terms of insurance business, China Life’s total premium income in 2025 surpassed 700 billion yuan, reaching 12k yuan, an increase of 8.7%. The company stated that it is vigorously promoting business structure transformation, with floating income-type businesses achieving strong growth, accounting for nearly 50% of first-year premium payments.

Among the main channels, individual insurance premiums totaled 551.79 billion yuan, up 4.3% year-on-year. The bancassurance channel’s total premiums reached 110.87 billion yuan, an increase of 45.5%, making it an important source of premium growth. Notably, new single premiums from bancassurance reached 58.51 billion yuan, up 95.7% year-on-year.

China Life introduced that as of the end of 2025, the company’s total sales force numbered 638k people, maintaining industry-leading scale, with continuous improvement in professionalism, specialization, and youthfulness of the sales team.

The annual report highlights that China Life emphasizes value and efficiency orientation. In 2025, the value of new business was 75.9k yuan, up 35.7% year-on-year. The embedded value at the end of 2025 was 1.47 trillion yuan, a 4.76% increase from the end of 2024, remaining the industry leader.