Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary
China Life Insurance: 5 Years on NYSE
So it has been five years since China Life Insurance (LFC) IPOed on NYSE, which means I have own this stock for exactly five years, the longest time I have ever owned a stock. That sounds unbelievable to me. Time did pass very quickly 
It wasn’t a smooth ride however. When I bought the stock on its IPO day (I planed the purchase for quite a long time, getting the fund ready), I had very high hope because, as the dominate player in the insurance market in China, LFC’s potential could be huge because China has 1.3 billion population and Chinese started to realize the importance of having coverage for their health and their properties.
However, despite the potential, the stock barely move for nearly two years since its IPO, hovering around $22 most of the time. The performance of the stock bothered me so much that I sold a big chunk of my holdings. Then the stock took off at the end of 2005, as China stock market started its two-year rally. When LFC reached its all-time high in October last year, I was joking with my wife that we could sell the stock and buy a bigger house (well, at least the downpayment) right away. At that time, LFC was the world’s largest insurer by market value. But I didn’t sell and saw the stock’s downward spiral since then, as the plot below shows.
Of course, the general market condition didn’t cooperate since last summer. Despite the poor performance of the stock recently, I have no plan to sell my holding. I am going it ride it out and see what happens
On its 5-year anniversary as a listing company on NYSE, I collected some major events (including my events) of China Life Insurance since its IPO if you care.
- China Life Insurance began trading on NYSE under symbol LFC on December 17, 2003 with an opening price of $23.25. The IPO raised $3.6 billion, the largest ever at that time.
