Citigroup: View the first half of the year of Friends Provident Insurance (01299.HK) with a 14% increase in new business value, slightly increase EPS forecast, maintain "buy" rating.

The Zhixin Finance and Economics APP learned that Citigroup released a research report stating that it maintains a "buy" rating for AIA Group (01299.HK) and the target price of 103 Hong Kong dollars based on the intrinsic value assessment method remains unchanged. The bank expects AIA to announce its interim performance for the first half of 2026 on August 20. Despite facing challenges from high base effects, the new business value of its China and Hong Kong operations, calculated at a fixed exchange rate, is expected to increase by 19% and 13% respectively on a year-on-year basis, driving the group's overall new business value to increase by 14% to $3.232 billion when calculated at the substantive exchange rate. Furthermore, taking into account the impact of share buybacks, it is expected that the earnings per share attributable to shareholders will increase by 11% on a yearly basis, and the mid-term dividend per share is also expected to increase by 12%.