PING AN OF CHINA(02318) 交银国际证券·2024-08-27 10:47Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Buy" rating for the company, China Ping An Insurance (2318 HK), with a target price of HKD 51.00, indicating a potential upside of 48.7% from the current closing price of HKD 34.30 [1][3][23]. Core Insights - The company's major business indicators are performing well, and its valuation appears low, prompting a reaffirmation of the "Buy" rating. The individual insurance agents have stabilized and shown a slight recovery, with a total of 340,000 agents, a 2% decrease year-to-date but a 0.7 thousand increase quarter-on-quarter, marking the first quarter-on-quarter increase since Q3 2020 [1][3]. - The new business value for the first half of the year grew by 11% year-on-year, aligning with expectations. The new business value margin increased to 24.2%, up 6.5 percentage points year-on-year, driven by product structure optimization and extended payment terms [2][3]. - The strategic layout of comprehensive finance and medical pension services has created a differentiated competitive advantage, with an upgrade to the 2.0 customer management phase. The profit forecast for 2024 has been raised, expecting a 13% year-on-year growth in OPAT from a low base [3][15]. Financial Performance Summary - For the first half of 2023, the company reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 69.841 billion, a 6.8% increase year-on-year, while OPAT slightly decreased by 0.6% to RMB 78.950 billion. The core business segments showed growth, with property insurance up 7.2%, life and health insurance up 0.7%, and banking up 1.9% [6][15]. - The new business value for the first half of 2023 was RMB 20.112 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 11%. The number of individual insurance agents decreased by 9.1% year-on-year [6][7]. - The company expects a net profit of RMB 111.464 billion for 2024, reflecting a 30.1% year-on-year increase, with an operating ROAE of 12.0% [19][24].