[ET Net News Agency, 12 September 2019] Goldman Sachs lowered its target price for New
China Life Insurance (NCI)(01336) to HK$40 from HK$49 and downgraded its rating to
"neutral" from "buy".
The research house said NCI is up 10% year-to-date, underperforming H-share peers (15%)
but outperforming the HSCEI index (4%). Goldman noted that this underperformance was
mostly after 1H results.
More importantly, it noted that NCI reported a decline in agent productivity and lower
margin, in both the agency and the bancassurance channels. These represent a significant
deviation from the previous focus on agent quality and protection-product sales.
Goldman reduced its 2019/20/21 NBV by 18%/22%/25% for NCI. It raised FY2019 earnings by
19% to reflect one-off tax refund in 1H and fine-tuned FY2020/21 earnings by +1%/+2%. (KL)