On October 21, Postal Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Postal Life") announced that on October 14, it acquired 3.995 million H-shares of CHINA CRSC (03969.HK) in the Hong Kong secondary market, increasing its ownership from 4.97% to 5.17%, thus triggering the H-share stake increase.
This marks the third time in 2025 that Postal Life has taken such action. Earlier, the company targeted East China Logistics (601156.SH) and Green Power Environmental Protection (01330.HK), focusing on infrastructure, environmental protection, and transportation sectors.
According to statistics from the China Insurance Industry Association's official website, there have been 32 instances of insurance capital increasing stakes in listed companies this year.
Yuan Shuai, deputy director of the investment department at the China Urban Development Research Institute, told reporters that this wave of stake increases reflects insurance institutions making rational choices in response to market and policy changes, aiming for asset steady growth and sustainable enterprise development. Investment focus has shifted towards industries with stable returns and long-term growth prospects, like infrastructure and environmental protection. Moreover, the investment strategy emphasizes long-term cooperation and strategic synergy with enterprises, rather than mere short-term financial investments.
In addition, Postal Life recently completed changes to its business registration, increasing its registered capital from 28.663 billion yuan to 32.643 billion yuan, an increase of 3.98 billion yuan. Following this capital increase, Postal Life now ranks fourth in the insurance industry by registered capital, only behind Ruizhong Life (56.5 billion yuan), Ping An Life (33.8 billion yuan), and Zhonghui Life (33.2 billion yuan).
Postal Life’s announcement on the China Insurance Industry Association's official website indicated that it triggered a stake increase in CHINA CRSC H-shares. Before this stake increase, the company held 97.777 million shares of CHINA CRSC H-shares, accounting for 4.97% of its H-share capital. After purchasing 3.995 million H-shares, Postal Life's direct holding rose to 102 million shares, bringing its ownership percentage to 5.17%.
The book value of Postal Life's holdings in CHINA CRSC is approximately 337 million yuan, making up 0.049% of its total assets as of the end of the second quarter of 2025. At that time, Postal Life's equity assets had a book value of 100.775 billion yuan, with available funds amounting to 510.915 billion yuan.
Postal Life stated that this investment will be managed under its equity investment management framework, and the entrusted manager, Postal Insurance Asset Management, will closely monitor the company's operational status and the market's subsequent response, leaving open the possibility for further investment in the future.
As a large central enterprise directly supervised by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, CHINA CRSC has evolved into a high-tech industrial group characterized by intelligent control technology and is a global leader in rail transit control systems. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2015 and on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market in 2019.
In the first half of 2025, CHINA CRSC recorded revenue of 14.665 billion yuan, an increase of 2.91% year-on-year; net profit attributable to its parent company was 1.621 billion yuan, up by 1.34%. As of the end of June 2025, CHINA CRSC's total assets amounted to 115.51 billion yuan.
As of the close on October 21, CHINA CRSC's A-shares were trading at 5.42 yuan per share, up by 2.46%, while its H-shares were at 3.53 HKD per share, an increase of 1.15%.
According to the China Insurance Industry Association's official website, this year there have been 32 instances of insurance capital increasing stakes in listed companies. Postal Life has been particularly active, making three stakes increases this year, previously targeting East China Logistics and Green Power Environmental Protection with a focus on infrastructure and transportation sectors.
In July of this year, Postal Life increased its holdings in Green Power Environmental Protection by a total of 726,000 H-shares. With this increase, Postal Life's stake in Green Power Environmental Protection rose from 4.89% to 5.07%, triggering a stake increase. In May, Postal Life acquired 79.4201 million shares of East China Logistics via a block transfer, representing 5.00% of its total outstanding shares for a total of 869 million yuan, which also triggered a stake increase.
Last October, Postal Life increased its holdings in Anhui Wanshui Expressway (00995.HK) by 284,000 H-shares, totaling 2.4828 million shares, resulting in a stake of 5.04% and triggering a stake increase. This marked Postal Life's first stake increase since 2015.
Yu Fenghui, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, mentioned to reporters that Postal Life's focus on infrastructure, environmental protection, and transportation aligns well with the needs of insurance capital. These assets provide stable cash flows and expected returns and are capable of delivering long-term dividend payouts that meet the needs of life insurance funds. Moreover, with China's economic transformation and high-quality development, the infrastructure, environmental protection, and transportation sectors are poised for new opportunities, offering significant growth potential and investment value, representing a trend of life insurance equity investments tilting towards core infrastructure assets.
Beyond secondary market investments, Postal Life's capital strength has also seen substantial growth. According to Tianyancha, Postal Life has recently completed regulatory changes, increasing its registered capital from 28.663 billion yuan to 32.643 billion yuan, representing an increase of 3.98 billion yuan.
The capital increase was expedited procedurally. In May, Postal Life's first temporary shareholder meeting of 2025 approved the capital increase plan. In June, the plan received approval from the Beijing Financial Regulatory Bureau.
It has been reported that the capital increase was jointly funded by Postal Life's two major shareholders—China Postal Group and AIA Group. Specifically, China Postal Group increased its shareholding by approximately 2.986 billion shares, while AIA Group increased by about 995 million shares, totalling approximately 3.981 billion shares, corresponding to a capital increase of 3.98 billion yuan.
As a result of this capital increase, China Postal Group's ownership percentage increased from 38.22% to 42.68%, further solidifying its position as the controlling shareholder; AIA Group's stake remained stable at 24.99%, retaining its status as the second-largest shareholder.
Notably, this marks the ninth capital increase for Postal Life since its establishment and the first since bringing AIA Group on board as a strategic investor in early 2022. Following this capital increase, Postal Life ranks fourth in the industry by registered capital, closely following Ruizhong Life, Ping An Life, and Zhonghui Life.
In its solvency report for the second quarter of 2025, Postal Life indicated that this capital increase aims to enhance its operational capability, capital strength, and risk prevention abilities. The financing does not involve issues related to the duration or cost of financing, with this move promoting a significant improvement of about 17.7 percentage points in both comprehensive solvency adequacy and core solvency adequacy ratios for the quarter.
According to the solvency report, in the first half of 2025, Postal Life's insurance business revenue was 118.072 billion yuan, up 12.07% year-on-year; net profit was 5.177 billion yuan, down 9.02% year-on-year. By the end of the second quarter, Postal Life’s core solvency adequacy ratio and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio were 128.57% and 194.59%, respectively, demonstrating substantial improvement compared to the end of the first quarter.
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