归因于潜在的中国保险行业的巨大市场发展潜力，在过去的2018年，投资者继续通过对保险公司的并购加码投资保险领域。另一方面，部分投资人也因为各种原因出清所持有的保险公司股份。
In the light of the enormous market capacity of the Chinese insurance industry, in the past 2018, investors continued to invest in the insurance sector through mergers and acquisitions of insurance companies. On the other hand, some investors chose to sell the shares of insurance companies they hold for various reasons.

经查询银保监会的网站，2018年保监会共审批通过了12家保险公司的股权转让。发生保险公司股权变动的原因主要有以下几种：

（1）由于股东回归主业或资金压力出让保险公司股份。例如万达集团拟将持有的百年人寿股份全部转让给绿城房产。

（2）部分保险公司出于优化资本结构的考虑，由投资人增持保险公司的股份，例如京东集团增资安联财险并持有其30%的股份。

（3）部分国有资本开始投资保险公司，并持有相应的股份。例如湖北宏泰国有资本投资运营集团、武汉地产开发投资集团、武汉江岸国有资产经营管理有限责任公司向国华人寿增资；再如2018年4月24日，中国信达将信达财险41%的股权转让给深圳市投资控股有限公司的交易获得保监会的批准。

（4）出于产品业务线的延伸及整体布局而导致的保险公司并购，例如华夏控股通过协议转让方式，向平安资管转让华夏幸福总股本的19.70%。标的股份的转让价格确定为23.655元/股，转让价款共计137.7亿元

（5）外资保险公司扩大其在合资保险公司的持股比例，例如AXA安盛集团从中方股东手中受让安盛天平财险股份总计50%的股份。
According to public information on the website of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, in 2018, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) approved equity transactions of 12 insurance companies in total. We have noticed there are several reasons behind those equity transactions of insurance companies:

(1) In some cases, the shares are sold as a result of financial pressure or the former shareholder decided to focus more on its main business. For example, Wanda Group sold all of its shares of Aeon Life to Greentown Real Estate Group.

(2) Some insurance companies are seeking improvement of shareholders ownership structures by introducing strategic shareholders to the companies. For example, JD Group invested in Allianz Property and held 30% of its shares after the transaction.

(3) Some state-owned entities showed their interest in insurance companies and began to invest in insurance industry. For example, Hubei Hongtai State-owned Capital Investment Operation Group, Wuhan Real Estate Development and Investment Group, Wuhan Jiangan State-owned Assets Management Company increased capital to Guohua Life Insurance. Another case is the transaction of 41% of the total shares of Cinda Property Insurance owned by China Cinda to Shenzhen Investment Holding Company, and the transaction was finally approved by CIRC on April 24,2018.

(4) Some mergers and acquisitions were carried out for the reasons of extension of the product line and overall layout strategy, such as Huaxia Holdings, through the agreement transfer method, transferred 19.70% of the total shares of China Fortune Land Development to PingAn Asset Management with total transfer price of 13.77 billion yuan.

(5) Some of the foreign-invested insurance companies aiming to expand their Chinese business increased their shareholding in joint-venture insurance companies. For instance, AXA Group acquired a total of 50% of AXA Tianping P&C shares from the company’s Chinese shareholders.

除此之外，2018年中国公司与境外实体之间的海外保险公司的并购交易也十分活跃：

（1）2018年12月，九鼎集团出售其100%的富通保险股份予周大福旗下子公司Earning Star Limited。

（2）2018年2月，荣丰控股公告拟与上海宫保商务咨询有限公司组成联和体，收购希腊国家银行全资保险公司Ethniki Hellenic General Insurance S.A.不低于75%的股权。
In addition, mergers and acquisitions of overseas insurance companies are also active in 2018, for instance:

(1) In December 2018, Jiuding Group sold 100% of its shares in Fortis Insurance to Earning Star Limited, a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook, and

(2) In February 2018, Rongfeng Holdings announced that it was in the process of forming a joint venture with Shanghai Gongbao Business Consulting Co., Ltd. to acquire a minimum of 75% equity of National Bank of Greece's wholly-owned insurance company Ethniki Hellenic General Insurance S.A.

总体来说，2018年，银保监会推出了一系列加强保险公司合规经营的监管要求，客观上也是导致保险公司股权变动的原因之一。针对保险公司股权不透明、股权结构复杂、关联交易、挪用保险资金自我注资或循环出资、违规代持等情况，原保监会修订发布的《保险公司股权管理办法》已于2018年4月10日正式生效，替代2010年版的《保险公司股权管理办法》，对投资保险公司提出了明确的要求。新规条文从原有的37条扩充到94条，从投资者准入、持股比例、锁定期要求、资本真实性、信息披露等多个角度入手，全面加强了投资并购境内保险公司的监管要求。新规实施后，对投资并购境内保险机构的审批将面临更严格的审查，但也会有利于保险行业的健康及稳定发展。
In general, 2018 witnessed the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission rolling out a series of regulatory documents emphasizing the compliance management of entities in the insurance industry, which also served as one of the reasons for the equity transactions of the insurance companies. In view of the opacity and complexity of insurance companies’ shareholding structures, transactions between related parties, misappropriation of insurance funds for self-injection and revolving capital contribution, and illegal entrusted shareholding, CIRC revised and issued the "Measures for the Administration of Equity of Insurance Companies", which came into effect on April 10, 2018, replacing the 2010 version. The new Measures, which expanded from the original 37 clauses to 94 clauses, puts forward clear requirements for investment of insurance companies. Stipulating a variety of perspectives including investor qualifications, shareholding ratio, lock-in period, capital authenticity, information disclosure, etc., the new Measures comprehensively strengthened the supervision of investment and M&A of domestic insurance companies. After the implementation of the new Measures, the M&A procedures of domestic insurance companies will face more stringent review, but in the long term, it will be beneficial to the stability and development of the insurance industry.

另一方面，保险行业进一步加快了对外开放的步伐，外资在华拓展保险业务的范围进一步放宽。2018年6月28日，国家发展改革委和商务部联合发布了《外商投资准入特别管理措施（负面清单）（2018年版）》，并于2018年7月28日起施行，同时废止了《外商投资产业指导目录（2017年修订）》中的外商投资准入特别管理措施，即限制类和禁止类的外商投资产业目录，而鼓励类外商投资产业目录继续执行。根据新的准入政策，金融领域，取消银行业外资股比限制，将证券公司、基金管理公司、期货公司、寿险公司的外资股比放宽至51%，2021年取消金融领域所有外资股比限制。我们也同时注意到，部分合资保险公司已经开始建立自己的资产管理公司开展在华资产管理业务。
On the other hand, the insurance industry has further accelerated the pace of opening up to the outside world, and the scope of foreign investment in the insurance business in China has been further expanded. On June 28, 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2018 Edition)", which came into force on July 28, 2018, and abolished the restricted and prohibited foreign-invested industrial catalogues in “The Foreign Investment Investing Catalogue (Revised in 2017)”, while encouraged foreign-invested industrial catalogues continued to be in force. According to the new policy, in the financial sector, the ratio restriction of foreign shares in the banking industry was removed, and the ratio of foreign shares of securities companies, fund management companies, futures companies, and life insurance companies was relaxed to 51%. In 2021, all limitations regarding foreign shares in the financial sector will be removed. We have also noticed that some joint venture insurance companies had established their own asset management entities to carry out corresponding business in China.

虽然近期中美贸易冲突导致市场的不确定性，但从中国官员的表态来看，中美之间对金融开放已经达成了部分共识。中国巨大的市场对境内投资者及跨国保险公司仍然有巨大的吸引力，我们认为今后两年的保险并购市场的交易仍将十分活跃。
Although the recent Sino-US trade conflict has led to market uncertainty, from the standpoint of Chinese officials, China and the United States have reached a partial consensus on financial openness. The huge market in China is still rather attractive to domestic investors and multinational insurance companies, and we believe that the transactions in the insurance M&A market will remain very active in the next two years.