CICC: China Taiping (00966.HK) leads transformation in dividend insurance, raising target price by 25% to 28.4 HK dollars.

According to Wise Finance, on August 29, CICC released a research report pointing out that China Pacific's 1H25 performance (unless otherwise stated, all in RMB) showed a year-on-year increase in attributable net profit of +12.2% to 6.76 billion Hong Kong dollars, better than expected by CICC; the new business value (NBV) of life insurance increased by +22.8% year-on-year, basically in line with expectations, the embedded value within the group increased by 8.8% since the beginning of the year, and the attributable net assets increased by +4.4% to 74.238 billion Hong Kong dollars. The company's profit forecast for 2025-2026 and its outperform industry rating remain unchanged, taking into account the improvement in the Hong Kong stock market sentiment which will help the company's valuation recovery. The company's target price has been raised by 25% to 28.4 Hong Kong dollars, corresponding to 0.50x 2025e and 2026e P/EV and a potential upside of 55%+.