To The Moon

The weight of bank stocks is becoming increasingly substantial within Ping An's portfolio. On January 8, Ping An Life Insurance announced that its investment in CM BANK H-shares, managed by Ping An Asset Management, had reached the 20% disclosure threshold on December 31, 2025. This marks the fourth time in the past year that Ping An has publicly disclosed a stake increase in CM BANK's H-shares. This move is not unexpected. Throughout 2025, it became commonplace for insurance capital to aggressively purchase bank stocks, with Ping An undoubtedly being the most prolific spender among them. By the end of 2025, the book value of CM BANK H-shares held by Ping An Life Insurance had reached 43.956 billion yuan. The trajectory from 5% to 20% demonstrates a resolute and clear logic behind Ping An's accumulation: in a prolonged cycle of declining interest rates, insurance funds require an asset pool that is sufficiently large, stable, and "generous." CM BANK fits this profile perfectly. In terms of performance, CM BANK continues to firmly hold its title as the "King of Retail Banking." Despite industry-wide pressure on net interest margins, it still achieved steady profit growth in the first half of 2025, maintained a high provision coverage ratio, and its asset quality stands out as superior among its peers. A more core attraction likely lies in its dividends. For the 2024 fiscal year, CM BANK distributed a dividend of 2.00 yuan per share, resulting in H-share dividend yields that have consistently remained at relatively high levels. For Ping An Life, which manages massive insurance policy reserves, compared to the volatile equity markets and the declining yields of the bond market, high-dividend stocks like CM BANK H-shares—which also carry a "dividend tax advantage"—represent an ideal long-duration matching asset. Ping An itself is also undergoing a "resilience test." As the entity disclosing the stake increase, Ping An saw its net profit surge by nearly 50% in 2024, and its operating profit also achieved 3.7% growth in the first half of 2025. Although net profit occasionally fluctuates due to equity market volatility, the sustained double-digit growth in the new business value of its life insurance segment provides a continuous stream of "ammunition." From the perspective of Ping An's management, the capital market is currently in a window of opportunity for insurance capital allocation. On one hand, there are supportive policy winds from regulators encouraging long-term capital to enter the market; on the other hand, bank stocks still trade at relatively low valuation levels. As "low volatility, high dividends" becomes a market consensus, Ping An's increased bet on CM BANK实质上 represents a major wager by insurance capital on future, more certain returns. Whether this "heavy allocation to dividends" strategy can outperform the next cycle is not only crucial for Ping An's investment returns but also serves as a key case study for observing the trends in the era of large-scale asset management.