Haibao Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haibao Life") has finally confirmed its new general manager following the departure of the inaugural general manager in April of this year.

Journalists have noted that recently, the Financial Regulatory General Administration has approved Ma Yuchun's qualification to serve as the general manager of Haibao Life. As a seasoned veteran with extensive experience in the insurance industry, Ma Yuchun has served as the general manager of Haibao Life's Hainan branch and as the deputy general manager of the company. Industry insiders have described his style as "prudent." For Haibao Life, which has been established for six years and is facing profitability challenges, what changes will the new leadership bring?

First General Manager Change, Ma Yuchun's Style "Prudent"

In April of this year, Li Gaofeng, the former general manager and compliance officer of Haibao Life, resigned from his position as the company's general manager due to personal reasons. As the first general manager of Haibao Life, Li Gaofeng held positions in several securities and fund companies before entering the insurance industry. He joined the China Everbright Group's Everbright Life Insurance stock reform work group and successively served as the director's office director, board secretary, deputy general manager in charge of finance and investment, and other positions at Everbright Life Insurance.

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In January 2017, Haibao Life was approved for establishment, with Li Gaofeng serving as the leader of the preparatory group and the intended general manager. In June of the following year, Li Gaofeng was successfully approved to take on the role of general manager of Haibao Life, and from April 2019, he also served as the company's compliance officer.

After six years at the helm, Li Gaofeng resigned, and Ma Yuchun took on the role of acting head of the company as the deputy general manager. Six months later, he was officially approved to be promoted to general manager.

Born in 1964, Ma Yuchun has extensive experience in the insurance industry and has held positions at several insurance institutions. He has served as the deputy director of the Human Resources Office of the Organization and Personnel Department of Ping An Insurance Group, a management specialist at AIA's Shanghai branch, assistant general manager (in charge) of the Planning Department and deputy general manager (in charge) of the Human Resources Department at Taiping Life Insurance, general manager of the Shanghai branch, assistant to the general manager at Qianhai Life Insurance, and special assistant to the chairman at Kunlun Health Insurance.

After joining Haibao Life, Ma Yuchun served as the general manager of the Hainan branch and became the deputy general manager of Haibao Life in April 2023. A year later, following Li Gaofeng's resignation, he took on the role of acting head of the company, as well as the administrative responsible person for credit risk management capabilities and real estate investment management capabilities.

Regarding Ma Yuchun, some insurance industry insiders have commented to Blue Whale News reporters that his personal style is inclined towards prudence.

Aiming for Profitability, Haibao Life's New Three-Year Plan Proposes "Four Adherences"If Li Gaofeng's six-year tenure laid the foundation for the development of Hai Bao Life Insurance, then Ma Yuchun will face the key period of further development for Hai Bao Life Insurance. Established in May 2018, Hai Bao Life Insurance is the first national legal entity to be established and opened in Hainan, with a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan.

In terms of business layout, it particularly focuses on coverage in the "healthcare and elderly care" field, proposing to combine the advantages of local tourism, elderly care, and medical resources in Hainan, focusing on major disease medical insurance, elderly care, short-term accidents, lifelong life insurance, and more diversified comprehensive services.

In terms of performance, Hai Bao Life Insurance is still in a period of growth fluctuations, with premium scales of 282 million yuan, 1.174 billion yuan, 1.429 billion yuan, 892 million yuan, 831 million yuan, and 1.129 billion yuan from 2018 to 2023. In terms of profit, the company only achieved a slight profit of 9 million yuan in 2021, and the rest of the years are still in a loss state, with losses of 179 million yuan and 318 million yuan in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

In the first half of this year, Hai Bao Life Insurance's premium income was 854 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.5%, outperforming the overall growth rate of the industry, but the profit performance was not good, with a net loss of 218 million yuan in the same period.

Upon closer examination, the asset side is obviously dragging down. In the first half of the year, Hai Bao Life Insurance's investment return rate was -0.43%, which is a rare negative investment return rate in the industry, and the comprehensive investment return rate was 1.82%. Compared with the average investment return rate of 3.26% and the average comprehensive investment return rate of 2.51% in the past three years, there is a significant gap. Under continuous losses, Hai Bao Life Insurance's solvency has also declined. At the end of the second quarter this year, Hai Bao Life Insurance's core and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratios were 121.45% and 157.03%, respectively, and the forecast for the end of next quarter will further decline to 116.43% and 152.5%.

In response, in June this year, Hai Bao Life Insurance raised 88 million yuan for the company's 2024 subordinated regular debt from qualified investors, with the intention of "supplementing the company's capital, making up for the short-term capital shortage, improving solvency and underwriting capacity, and enhancing risk resistance."

In May this year, on the occasion of the 6th anniversary of Hai Bao Life Insurance, the company's chairman Zhao Shuhua once proposed, "As a private small and medium-sized insurance company, it is not easy for Hai Bao Life Insurance to withstand the pressure and develop steadily to this day."

"In the past two years, the industry has been in a deep transformation period, and insurance institutions, especially small and medium-sized insurance institutions, are under great pressure," an insurance industry insider analyzed, "Under the background of lack of advantages in the liability side performance and difficulty in making value contributions on the asset side, Hai Bao Life Insurance's further profit-making obviously also faces significant challenges. It is necessary to find its own advantages on the liability side and find the innovative advantages of products in the fiercely competitive track; on the asset side, it is necessary to optimize as soon as possible, and steadily improve returns under the premise of preventing risks."

For the new three-year development in the future, Zhao Shuhua has clearly defined four "adherences": the first is to adhere to high-quality development, pursue the improvement of business quality rather than blind expansion of scale, actively embrace new regulatory requirements, and vigorously promote value-type periodic business; the second is to adhere to prudent investment, learn from historical experiences and lessons, adhere to cautious thinking principles, and ensure that future investment risks are low and returns are predictable; the third is to adhere to compliant operations, be a "good student" in the era of strong regulation, and key indicators must meet regulatory requirements, and red lines must not be touched; the fourth is to adhere to strategic work, cultivate Hainan, and layout outside the island.

Overall, Hai Bao Life Insurance's further development path needs to break through many bottlenecks, and how to turn losses into profits still remains a suspense.