China Life Insurance: NBV Growth Slightly Ahead of Expectation; Agent Headcount Stable

China Life's first-quarter IFRS 17 based total revenue and net profit increased 18% and 78% year on year, respectively, while new business value, or NBV, growth was slightly ahead of our expectation at 7.7% year on year. The change in accounting standards in the insurance industry is leading to much of the bottom-line increase in the past quarter. We retain our full-year NBV growth projection at around 10% as we have yet to see meaningful recovery in demand for protection type products. Hence, given results were largely in line, we retain our fair value estimate for China Life at CNY 19 per A share and HKD 20 per H share. With the H share trading at a sharp discount to the A-shares, we are buyers of the H share but would sell the A-share.