ZHONGTAI SECURITIES·2024-04-01 16:00Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Buy" rating for China Life Insurance [3][17]. Core Views - The overall performance of China Life's annual report for 2023 meets expectations, with a slight outperformance in quarterly profits and stable growth in New Business Value (NBV) [3][8]. Summary by Sections Profit and Net Asset Situation - Under the new accounting standards, the net profit attributable to shareholders is 46.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.7%, with Q4 single-quarter profit at 10.6 billion yuan, down 4.7% year-on-year. The net assets attributable to shareholders stand at 477.1 billion yuan, an increase of 30.3% from the beginning of the year [4]. Life Insurance Premiums and Value Growth - The first-year regular premium increased by 16.7% year-on-year, and NBV grew by 11.9% year-on-year (on a comparable basis after retrospective adjustments) [5]. - The first-year regular premium for ten years and above increased by 18.4%, accounting for a year-on-year increase of 0.6 percentage points. Individual insurance first-year regular premium rose by 12.6%, while bank insurance long-term premium surged by 39.4% [5]. Human Resources - The total number of agents at the end of 2023 was 694,000, a decrease of 4.8% from the beginning of the year. The individual insurance agent count was 634,000, down 5.1% year-on-year [6]. - Monthly average first-year regular premium per agent increased by 28.6% year-on-year, indicating significant productivity improvement [6]. Investment - Investment assets reached 5.7 trillion yuan, up 12% from the beginning of the year. The net investment yield is 3.77%, down 0.23 percentage points year-on-year, while the total investment yield is 2.68%, down 1.26 percentage points year-on-year [7]. - The company recorded an asset impairment loss of 53 billion yuan for the year, primarily related to AFS equity assets [7]. Investment Recommendations - The report concludes that China Life's annual performance aligns with expectations, with stable growth in NBV and an improvement in agent quality. The forecast for the company's EV growth in 2024 is positive [8].