China Life's net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 44.1% year-on-year last year.

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Our reporter: Leng Cuihua

On the evening of March 25, China Life Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “China Life”) released its first 2025 annual report for A-share listed insurers.

In 2025, in the face of increasingly complex and volatile internal and external conditions, China Life continued to strengthen asset-liability management, deepen collaboration across all channels for operations, accelerate reform in key areas, and saw several core indicators hit historic highs. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reached 1540.78 billion yuan; on a high base, it grew strongly by 44.1%. Embedded value totaled 1.47 trillion yuan, keeping it firmly at the top of the industry.

In terms of business development, in 2025, China Life’s total premiums for the first time exceeded 700 billion yuan, reaching 7298.87 billion yuan, up 8.7% year over year. First-year premium for term policies reached 1162.05 billion yuan, maintaining the top spot in the industry. Long-term competitive advantages remained solid, with first-year premiums for policies of 10 years and above reaching 521.97 billion yuan, accounting for 44.92% of first-year premiums.

In terms of business structure, last year China Life’s new business premiums for its three major insurance lines were balanced, strengthening business resilience. The proportions of new business premiums for life insurance, annuity insurance, and health insurance were 31.75%, 32.11%, and 31.23% respectively, making the business structure more balanced. At the same time, the company’s business structural transformation delivered notable results: floating income-type insurance business achieved strong growth, with its share in first-year premiums nearing 50%, and the transformation of its business structure was progressing smoothly.

In terms of operating quality and efficiency, last year China Life emphasized value and efficiency, and its new business value achieved rapid growth, up 35.7% year over year. It dynamically optimized large-category asset allocation, significantly improved investment returns, and achieved its best investment performance in recent years. Total investment income was 3876.94 billion yuan, up 794.43 billion yuan from 2024, a 25.8% increase year over year; total investment yield was 6.09%, up 59 basis points versus the same period in 2024.

China Life adheres to the concepts of asset-liability-linked management and long-term investment, value investment, and prudent investment, continuously improving its investment professional capabilities. It dynamically optimizes large-category asset allocation, enhancing the stability of investment portfolio returns and increasing long-term return potential. In 2025, in fixed-income investments, the company flexibly adjusted allocation timing and product strategies, and continued to firmly hold its core base of allocations. In equity investments, it vigorously advanced the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market, seized market opportunities, and decisively increased efforts in equity investment. It actively developed areas related to new-quality productive forces and steadily carried out high-dividend stock allocations. The scale of public-market equity investments exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, increasing by more than 4500 billion yuan from the beginning of the year. In alternative investments, it focused on high-quality entities and core assets, innovated investment models, and strengthened forward-looking planning.

By the end of 2025, China Life’s investment assets were 74237.05 billion yuan, up 12.3% from the end of 2024. The allocation proportions of bond, time deposits, debt-type financial products, and other categories were basically stable. The allocation proportions of 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 decisively increased its equity investment efforts, significantly boosting the scale of equity investment.

Meanwhile, China Life attaches importance to sharing the fruits of high-quality development with investors. It plans to distribute a cash dividend for the end of 2025 of 6.18 yuan per 10 shares (including tax). Together with the interim cash dividend for 2025 that has already been distributed, the total cash dividend for the full year will be 8.56 yuan per 10 shares (including tax). The total dividend payout will be 241.95 billion yuan, up 31.7% year over year.

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Responsible editor: Gao Jia