New Stock News | Fuwei Group submits Hong Kong Stock Exchange's fourth quarter report, achieving a turnaround from loss to profit in 2024.

According to the disclosure by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 19, FWD Group Limited (referred to as FWD Group) has submitted an application for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as its joint sponsors. It is worth noting that this is the fourth time that FWD Group has submitted its application, with previous submissions on February 28, 2022, September 13, 2022, and March 13, 2023. The prospectus shows that FWD Group is a pan-Asian life insurance company that adopts a customer-first and digital empowerment model. Founded by Richard Li in 2013, the company provides a diverse range of products including life insurance, health insurance, employee benefits (group insurance), and wealth management products, offering simple and tailored solutions to meet the needs of its customers in the pan-Asian region. In terms of products, the company's main categories are (i) participating life insurance; (ii) non-participating life insurance; (iii) critical illness, term life, medical, and supplemental insurance; (iv) unit-linked life insurance; and (v) group insurance and others, contributing 36.5%, 28.0%, 22.2%, 7.5%, and 5.7% of the new business value in 2024, respectively. The company has expanded from its initial three markets to ten markets, operating in China, Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, and emerging markets (including the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia) collectively known as the "FWD markets". The company has entered some new markets by obtaining new licenses (such as in the Philippines and Indonesia) or through acquisitions of locally licensed life insurance companies operating limitedly (such as in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia). Hong Kong (and Macau), Thailand (and Cambodia), Japan, and emerging markets contributed 34.2%, 32.6%, 15.7%, and 17.5% of the new business contract service margin in 2024. According to data from NMG, total life insurance premiums in the market are expected to increase from approximately $407 billion in 2023 to $579 billion in 2033. In 2023, FWD Group was one of the top five insurance companies in Southeast Asia in terms of annualized new premiums. The company expects Southeast Asia to become a major driver of growth in the Asian life insurance market, due to factors such as population base, the proportion of the middle class in the total population, and significant protection gaps compared to other regions in Asia. As of December 31, 2024, the company has over 2,900 insurance brokers and independent financial advisor partners. The company has also established a digital commerce platform, including a direct-to-customer (D2C) e-commerce platform integrated with application programming interfaces, digital channels with banking partners, and an ecosystem partner platform for online-to-online, online-to-offline, and offline-to-online (collectively known as "O2O") referral programs. Financially, in the years 2022, 2023, and 2024, FWD Group achieved net insurance and investment performance of $493 million, $47 million, and $911 million, respectively, with net profits of -$320 million, -$717 million, and $10 million during the same period.