China Life beats Ping An to become APAC's largest insurer by market cap in Q2

Five of the 20 largest public insurers in Asia-Pacific saw their market capitalizations increase sequentially in the second quarter, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

China Life takes over

China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. overtook fellow Hong Kong-listed Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. to become the largest insurer in Asia-Pacific by market capitalization in the second quarter. China Life's market capitalization grew sequentially by 9% to $99.50 billion during the period.

Ping An's sequential market cap growth of 3.6% to $94.44 billion, on the other hand, failed to prop the insurer up on top of the ranking.

Speculations surrounding the delayed repayment of Ping An's trust business on a property-linked investment product slightly weighed on the insurer's stock in the early part of the quarter.

Ping An blamed the delay on the continued impact of the real-estate downturn and vowed to find ways to recoup investors' money, Bloomberg News reported. The product, which raised millions of yuan for a property project in China, matured in March. All proceeds, however, flowed into a regulatory account after Chinese developer Zhenro Properties Group Ltd.'s default.

Hong Kong-listed AIA Group Ltd., Life Insurance Corp. of India and Japan's Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. maintained their rankings at third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.

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Biggest gainers

Japan-based MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. experienced the largest market cap change during the period at 32.3% to $35.34 billion, aiding its sequential climb in the ranking to sixth from ninth place. Tokio Marine followed with a 26.7% sequential increase to $73.20 billion.

Shares of the Japanese property and casualty insurers largely surged after giving guidance that exceeds analysts' expectations and providing clarity on plans to unwind their cross-shareholdings, Bloomberg reported.

After ending fiscal 2023 with higher attributable net income and adjusted earnings, MS&AD expects its fiscal 2024 group adjusted profit to increase by ¥250.0 billion while Tokio Marine projects an adjusted net income growth of at least 7%.

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd. and Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd. both entered the Top 10 after logging double-digit sequential hikes in market cap, ranking 7th from 12th and 8th from 10th, respectively. Cathay Financial Holding Co. Ltd. climbed to 13th place from 15th after its market cap increased by 21.3% to $26.64 billion during the period.

In terms of total return, MS&AD and Tokio Marine also recorded the highest at 31.9% and 27.7%, respectively.

Nine of the top 10 biggest insurers by market cap had positive total return in the second quarter except for Bajaj Finserv Ltd., which had a negative return of 3.3%.