Chairman Wan Qun commented that Pu Pengju's policy research and long-term experience in the pension industry, as well as his deep understanding of China's pension industry, will bring valuable perspectives and innovative thinking to the company.
Text/Daily Financial Report Li Jia
If you want to choose the hot words in the insurance industry since the beginning of 2024, "pension insurance" must be among them.
Since December 2004, Ping An Pension has been the first professional pension insurance company, and there are currently 10 professional pension insurance companies and a professional pension management institution, CCB Pension Management Co., Ltd., in mainland China.
In the past 20 years, the approval of domestic pension insurance companies has been in an intermittent state, and from 2005 to 2007, there was an explosive period, Taiping Pension, China Life Pension, Yangtze River Pension and Taikang Pension were approved to be established. For six years, the market calmed down, and no professional pension companies were established.
It was not until 2013 that the new Anbang pension was approved (later changed to everyone pension), three years later Xinhua pension was approved to be established, in 2017, after the establishment of the people's pension, after another four years, in January 2021, there was Hengan standard pension, and then in August of the same year, it was approved to build, and officially opened in March 2022 "Big Mac" national pension insurance company. So far, the competition pattern of 10 professional pension insurance companies in China has been formed, which can be described as "lively".
Along the way, there have been ups and downs. Professional pension insurance companies are not only undecided in the face of the current difficulties, but also confused and do not know where to go, and they are more future-oriented to change and move forward bravely.
As the first professional pension insurance company opened by a joint venture life insurance company in China, Hengan standard pension has received great attention from inside and outside the industry once it was established.
Judging from the recent big moves, Hengan Standard Pension has chosen "personnel first", which has pressed the acceleration button for the march.
Pu Pengju was promoted to the position of commander, and the "newcomer" glowed with a new atmosphere
Recently, the position of general manager of Hengan Standard Pension has changed. On May 20, it announced that after the 30th meeting of the company's first board of directors (provisional) and approved by the State Financial Supervision and Administration for approval, Hengan Standard Pension appointed Pu Pengju as the general manager of the company.
Hengan Standard Pension also stated in the announcement that the appointment of the above-mentioned directors was carried out in accordance with regulatory and relevant policies and procedures of the company, in line with the company's long-term strategic development goals, and had no significant impact on the company's production and operation, solvency and daily management.
"Daily Financial News" learned that Wan Qun, chairman of Hengan Standard Pension, commented on the appointment: "Pu Pengju's policy research and long-term experience in the pension industry, as well as a deep understanding of China's pension industry, will bring valuable perspectives and innovative thinking to the company." We are confident that his leadership will contribute to advancing Hengan Standard Pension Strategic Objectives and driving the Company's continued development and innovation in China's pension market." ”
In fact, since April 2021, Pu Pengju's relevant qualifications have been approved by the regulatory authorities, and he has officially served as the company's deputy general manager and chief marketing officer, in charge of the market development department, personal pension business department, trustee management department and operation department. After all, Pu Pengju has been serving as the deputy general manager of Hengan Standard Pension for three years.
It can be seen that Pu Pengju is a veteran of Hengan Standard Pension, and he is included in the list of directors in the annual report disclosed by the company at the end of 2021 when it was established one year ago. However, like Chairman Wan Qun and then General Manager Chen Shaofeng, they were not both "born" from shareholder Hengan Standard Life, but professional managers selected from outside.
According to public information, Pu Pengju studied at Nankai University and Peking University, with a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in finance respectively, and has worked in large pension management and investment institutions such as China Ocean Shipping Group, China Pacific Life Insurance, Taikang Pension, Yangtze River Pension, Tianhong Fund, etc., and has more than 20 years of experience in basic pensions, enterprise annuities and personal pensions, as well as very rich and mature experience in policy research and market research.
It is worth noting that according to the updated executive resumes of the solvency report for the first quarter of 2024 disclosed by Hengan Standard Pension, the company has 10 directors, supervisors and senior executives, only one of whom is from the outside, and the remaining 9 are from the shareholder Hengan Standard Life.
Taking the four directors as an example, Chairman Wan Qun has been serving as the secretary of the board of directors of Hengan Standard Life since February 2007, and also serves as a director of Hengan Standard Life (Asia) Limited, and previously served as the general manager of the company's legal department and the general manager of the legal compliance department.
Zhu Lu, Chairman of the Audit and Risk Management (Consumer Rights Protection) Committee, has been serving as the Deputy General Manager, Chief Risk Officer and General Manager of the Risk Management Department of Hengan Standard Life since April 2019. He joined Hengan Standard Life Insurance as early as 2006 and has served as the assistant general manager of the company.
Zhao Feng, chairman of the Investment Decision (Asset and Liability Management) Committee, joined Hengan Standard Life as early as 2011 and has served as assistant to the general manager, interim chief actuary, general manager of the actuarial product department, general manager of the product marketing department, and general manager of the product development department. At present, he has been promoted to the position of chief actuary and deputy general manager of the head office, and also serves as a director of Hengan Standard Life (Asia) Limited.
Wang Jizong, Chairman of the Related Party Transaction Control Committee, joined Hengan Standard Life in 2006 and successively served as senior product development manager of the product development department, assistant to the general manager of the actuarial department, deputy general manager of the accounting operation department, and deputy general manager of the accounting operation department of the company since September 2020.
In addition, one supervisor, Gao Jianxin, and four senior executives, including Chief Actuary Li Yan, Secretary of the Board of Directors Fan Rui, Audit Officer Yao Gang, and Compliance Officer Liu Zhihong, are not only more than 10 years of experience in related positions, but also all from the shareholder Hengan Standard Life, who has held important positions in the company.
It is not difficult to foresee that although Pu Pengju is very different from many executives "born" Hengan Standard Life, there is a senior insurance professional manager from outside the shareholder level as the helmsman in the company, which is undoubtedly a major benefit to Hengan Standard Pension.
In this regard, Hengan Standard Pension told the Daily Financial Report: "During his tenure as Deputy General Manager of Hengan Standard Pension, Pu Pengju successfully led a number of key projects, drove significant business growth, and made breakthroughs in innovative business and market strategies. His keen insight into market dynamics and deep understanding of customer needs will bring new impetus to Hengan Standard Pension. ”
However, in recent years, the development of the pension market has entered a period of deep adjustment, and according to the company's business data analysis, the road in front of shareholders and executives is not easy. The new will take office, and it is worth looking forward to how Hengan standard pension will break the situation.
Last year, the scale expanded rapidly, and the performance continued to be under pressure
With the strong alliance of Hengan Standard Life and the British Standard Life Aberdeen Group, Hengan Standard Pension, which has just been established for nearly three and a half years, has quickly occupied a place in the market, and the outside world is of course paying special attention to its operation.
After the in-depth implementation of the company's integration, organizational construction and strategic policies in the first two years, the scale of Hengan Standard Pension will be rapidly expanded in 2023, achieving a premium income of 337 million yuan, an investment income of 3.5718 million yuan, and a total revenue of 333 million yuan under the influence of fair value change profit and loss of -6.975 million yuan.
In 2022, the scale of Hengan standard pension premium is only 39,200 yuan, and the revenue growth at that time was mainly driven by investment income, which was 3.8979 million yuan that year, and other income was 2.016 million yuan, but under the influence of fair value change profit and loss -2.2601 million yuan, the company's total revenue in 2022 only reached 3.6931 million yuan.
From the perspective of net profit, like most newly established small and medium-sized insurance companies, Hengan Standard Pension has not yet made a profit. According to the data, the net profit from 2021 to 2023 will be -34 million yuan, -16 million yuan and -32 million yuan respectively.
According to the financial statements, we can intuitively see that the reason for the loss of Hengan Standard Pension in 2021 and 2022 is the high business and management expenses under the operating expense item, which are 41 million yuan and 19 million yuan respectively. In the early stage of life insurance companies, they need to invest a lot of real money in personnel recruitment, open offline outlets, advertise and expand channels, and then the company will gradually enter the right track and stability period, and this part of the cost will be controlled accordingly.
In 2023, its business and management expenses will further rise, reaching 37 million yuan, but it will have little impact on profits, after all, the premium has reached 337 million yuan that year, which is quite affordable.
The core reason for the further expansion of the net loss in 2023 is that last year, Hengan Standard Pension withdrew 327 million yuan of insurance liability reserves, which further increased the cost side, accounting for 89.59% of the total operating expenses.
As of the end of the first quarter, its premium income nearly doubled year-on-year, reaching 5.3026 million yuan, with a growth rate of 85.75%; The net loss was 3.8736 million yuan.
A capital increase of 200 million yuan will relieve the urgency of solvency pressure
After nearly three years of development, Hengan Standard Pension chose to increase its capital at the end of 2023, which is directly related to its tight solvency.
From 2021 to 2023, Hengan Standard Pension's premium income has maintained steady growth, but behind this rapid expansion is the continuous downward solvency, which has brought considerable challenges to capital adequacy.
The data shows that at the end of 2022, the core/comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio of Hengan Standard Pension was as high as 3457.16%, but after entering 2023, its solvency has declined sharply, declining every quarter, and by the end of the fourth quarter of that year, its core/comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio has plummeted to 327.08% and 372.15% respectively.
In order to enhance the company's capital strength, stabilize the market position and future sustainable development, its capital increase plan of 200 million yuan at the end of last year has also been successfully settled in the first quarter of this year, fully funded by Hengan Standard Life, after the completion of the capital increase, Hengan Standard Pension equity structure remains unchanged, still held by Tianjin TEDA International Holdings and the British Aberdeen Group 50% each, and the registered capital has been increased to 400 million yuan.
At the same time, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, the core/comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio of Hengan Standard Pension has been significantly improved, to 815.45% and 852.34% respectively, an increase of 488.37pct and 480.19pct respectively compared with the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.
In response to last year's first capital increase, Hengan Standard Pension told the "Daily Financial Report": "This capital increase has effectively enhanced the capital strength of Hengan Standard Pension and supported Hengan Standard Pension to continue to increase investment in product development, sales channel expansion, digital operation capabilities and investment and research capacity building." After the completion of the capital increase, Hengan Standard Pension will continue to promote the existing exclusive commercial pension insurance business, actively strive for personal pension business qualifications, give full play to professional capabilities to enrich the supply of pension financial products, and help the diversified development of the mainland pension financial market. ”
There is no doubt that behind the shareholders' large-scale capital increase in Hengan standard pension, it actually reflects their optimism about the future pension industry in the mainland. According to estimates, the "silver economy" will contribute new strength to the mainland economy, and by 2050, the scale of the silver economy will reach nearly 50 trillion yuan, accounting for 35% of total consumption.
But on the other hand, we know that solvency pressures will undoubtedly put significant pressure on insurer shareholders to replenish their funds. Therefore, in the current increasingly competitive market environment for the pension market, improving its own profitability is the first thing that Hengan Standard Pension needs to do.