Huagui Life Insurance has experienced successive changes in its core senior management. The company recently announced that Luo Zhenhua has resigned from his position as General Manager due to age.
Prior to this, on April 30, Chairman Liu Gang also resigned from his director and chairman roles due to organizational personnel reassignment, with Vice Chairman Yang Li acting as chairman. Within a short span of half a month, both the executive management and the board of directors at this Guizhou province-based insurer are facing vacancies, raising market concerns about the continuity of its strategy.
Industry insiders note that the chairman and general manager are typically key decision-makers for corporate strategy and daily operations. Their absence may lead to delays in important company decisions, potentially impacting its development.
Departure of Top Leadership
Luo Zhenhua, born in 1965, holds a master's degree. He assumed the role of General Manager at Huagui Life in October 2020, also serving as Deputy Party Secretary. Before joining Huagui Life, he held positions including General Manager of the Hunan Branch, General Manager of the Head Office Administration Department, and General Manager of the Fujian Branch at New China Life Insurance, as well as Deputy General Manager at Sino-French Life Insurance. By the time of his departure in May 2026, Luo had served as General Manager for nearly six years.
Liu Gang's resignation was for a different assignment. On April 21, 2026, the Guizhou Provincial Government issued a notice recommending Liu Gang for the positions of Director, Vice Chairman, and General Manager of Guizhou Qiansheng State-owned Assets Operation Co., Ltd., suggesting he no longer serve as Chief Accountant of Moutai Group. Qiansheng State-owned Assets is the second-largest shareholder of Huagui Life, holding a 14.66% stake. This transfer essentially moves Liu from the major shareholder, Moutai Group, to the second-largest shareholder, but he remains within the insurer's shareholder system.
Experts have indicated that vacancies in top management can create uncertainty among employees about the company's future direction, affecting morale, team cohesion, and potentially leading to talent loss. Markets and partners may adopt a cautious stance towards such a leadership vacuum, worrying about the company's stability and ongoing operational capacity, which could subsequently impact business expansion, client trust, and market share.
Fundraising Challenges Amidst Turmoil
Amidst the personnel changes, Huagui Life recently completed a crucial capital increase. Last December, the Guizhou regulatory authority specially approved an increase in the company's registered capital by 615 million yuan, raising it from 2 billion yuan to 2.615 billion yuan. Moutai Group subscribed to the entire new capital, increasing its shareholding from 33.33% to 49.01%, approaching the 50% threshold for absolute control.
This increase exceeded the standard regulatory cap of one-third for a single shareholder's stake in an insurer, as stipulated in rules. However, exemptions exist for business innovation, specialization, or group operations. The special approval is seen as regulatory support for Moutai Group's integrated business strategy.
Concurrently, another larger-scale fundraising project by Huagui Life remains pending. Since late 2024, the company initiated a plan to raise 2.5 to 4.5 billion yuan through a share issuance, aiming to introduce up to 20 new investors who would collectively hold 20% to 40% of the shares.
This project was listed on the Guizhou Sunshine Property Exchange for 235 working days and was later re-listed on the Beijing Property Exchange in December 2025, yet it remains unfulfilled. While short-term capital pressure has been alleviated by the major shareholder's injection, the billions in funds required for long-term strategic development are still unresolved, placing Huagui Life at a critical juncture.
Analysts point out that the fundraising difficulties for small and medium-sized insurers stem from a valuation mismatch. In a subdued capital market with declining interest rates, investors demand higher risk premiums. However, many smaller insurers are in a loss-making or marginally profitable state, unable to offer commensurate returns, leading to a disconnect between price and demand.
Furthermore, these insurers are caught in an awkward phase of 'diseconomies of scale.' They lack the brand moat of large insurers and differentiated competitive advantages. Following the implementation of the second phase of the 'C-ROSS' solvency regime, capital replenishment pressures have intensified, deterring external capital.
This situation also reflects a lack of market confidence. Prolonged listing delays send negative signals to the market, exacerbating investor wait-and-see sentiment. In the absence of clear profit expectations and exit mechanisms, social capital remains extremely cautious about investing in small and medium-sized insurers, causing fundraising projects to repeatedly fail.
Costs of an Internet Term Life 'Phenomenon'
Huagui Life's rise followed a unique path. Its first chairman, Wang Zhenwu, avoided the crowded traditional life insurance model focused on agents and savings products. Instead, he concentrated on the specific, essential niche of term life insurance, building a popular internet term life product line around the 'Damai' series. In 2021, Wang publicly stated that the Damai series held nearly 50% market share in the online term life segment.
However, the popularity brought brand awareness alongside increasingly heavy claims pressure. Disclosed data shows the company's claim payments grew nearly a thousandfold over eight years, from just millions of yuan in 2017 to billions by 2024.
Term life products are pure protection, with a high probability of claims. As business scales, claim payments grow exponentially. This 'diseconomies of scale' dilemma is a key reason for Huagui Life's long-term losses.
In June 2023, the company faced a regulatory storm. The former Guizhou banking and insurance regulator issued 16 penalty notices against the company and its Guizhou branch, involving 14 directly responsible individuals, with total fines of 3.495 million yuan, making it a major industry penalty case that year. Founding Chairman Wang Zhenwu was warned and fined 150,000 yuan for providing preferential transaction terms to related parties and for failing to follow proper board procedures in selecting some investment managers.
Less than half a year after the penalties, in November 2023, Liu Gang, then Chief Accountant of Moutai Group, was approved as Chairman of Huagui Life, marking the formal start of the 'Moutai era' for the insurer.
After assuming office, Liu proposed a strategic focus on 'fully leveraging the Moutai connection.' Under his leadership, Moutai Group's influence strengthened: Deputy General Managers Wang Jianbo and Chen Dongmei, and Director Liu Tong all have Moutai backgrounds. Four of the ten board seats are linked to Moutai, giving the senior management team a distinct liquor industry flavor, which is unusual in the insurance sector.
From an industrial logic perspective, Moutai Group's brand endorsement, distributor network, and client resources could potentially offer business synergies for Huagui Life. Moutai possesses a vast high-net-worth client base and a nationwide sales channel, which could theoretically be converted into insurance customers. Industry veterans note that the advantages of industrial capital leading an insurer include financial support, synergistic effects, and enhanced market recognition.
However, risks are also evident. The liquor industry entered a period of deep adjustment in 2025, with prices for flagship products like Feitian Moutai declining and younger consumers gradually showing less acceptance for traditional drinking culture. As Moutai Group's own earnings growth slows, its capacity for external investment is inevitably constrained. Analysts warn that if the major shareholder itself faces cash flow pressure, its ability to provide continuous capital injections to the insurer would be significantly reduced. Furthermore, homogeneity in the management team can lead to rigid decision-making, and industrial capital often lacks the long-term patience required to operate a financial business, potentially prioritizing short-term financial returns.
Comments