Citigroup: AIA (01299) rated as "buy" with a target price of 100 Hong Kong dollars.

Citigroup released a research report stating that AIA (01299) has a "buy" rating, showing confidence in its continued stable performance and setting a target price of 100 Hong Kong dollars. Despite the drag on post-tax operating profit performance due to operational differences, the full-year and year-end dividends still increased by 5% compared to the previous year. The company just announced its strong performance for the 2023 fiscal year, which roughly met market expectations. Calculated according to actual exchange rates (AER) and constant exchange rates (CER), the new business value increased by a strong 30% and 33% to 4.034 billion US dollars, in line with expectations. This was mainly driven by a 41% increase in annualized net premium (ANP), but part of the increase was offset by a drop in profit margins calculated in AER. The report points out that in the second half of last year, AIA's new business value in Hong Kong and China increased by 61% and 24% respectively, driven by the growth in Mainland Chinese visitors (MCV) business and an increase in policy sales. Due to the increase in annual new premiums and improvement in profit margins, AIA's new business value grew by 27% last quarter, and the full-year contract service margin (CSM) balance also increased by 6% to 53.1 billion US dollars.