[ET Net News Agency, 28 January 2021] Daiwa Research lifted its target price for
ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance (06060) to HK$53 from HK$45 and reiterated its "outperform"
rating.
Despite ZhongAn's 2020 CoR (combined ratio) likely being slightly over 100% due to its
commission hike from Ant Group, the research house still expects a sound set of results
and a possible profit alert to be announced shortly.
Daiwa forecast ZhongAn to see a 6-month underwriting profit for the first time in 2H
2020, with CoR at around 97%. This was aided by (1) health insurance CoR, especially claim
ratio, which has been under control, (2) credit insurance, which has been seeing better
claim trends due to strong digital-driven risk management, (3) lower claims in
travel-related businesses due to fewer flight cancellations, and (4) economies of scale
which dilute its relatively high fixed costs, such as rent and IT.
Daiwa lifted its 2020-22 net profit forecasts by 34-60%, due to likely strong investment
income in 2H 2020 and rising technology service fee income. (KL)