BEIJING, Sep. 16, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (NYSE:LFC) (601628.SH, 2628.HK, LFC.NYSE) announced on Wednesday that it realized 210.7 billion yuan of premiums from January to August, down 6.44 percent year on year.
For the past six months, China Life has witnessed a decline in its premiums.
Wan Feng, the president of China Life, attributed the decline to the company's business restructuring. He added however that China Life is expected to see positive premiums growth in the fourth quarter.
Analysts pointed out that the business restructuring ensured improvement of its business quality and that it would lift up China Life's valuation.
The insurer has suspended the sales of banking-insurance and investment-linked products since the end of last year, choosing instead to focus on long-term and personal insurance products paid by installments.
According to its half-year report, its premiums from investment-linked products dropped 15.3 percent in the first half of this year; premiums from long-term insurance products paid by installments accounted for 46.3 percent of the total by the end of June, 15 percentage points higher than the same time last year.
