Zhejiang Merchants Property Insurance's net profit surged 2.6 times: underwriting ability turns profitable, premium scale under pressure

After a long period of dormancy, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance has finally delivered a noteworthy "report card" for 2025. On January 27, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance disclosed its solvency report for the fourth quarter of 2025, revealing a net profit of 151 million yuan for the year, a year-on-year increase of 266.6% compared to 41.31 million yuan in 2024. The significant jump in profitability may indicate that this local state-owned insurance company headquartered in Zhejiang is undergoing a substantial shift from a "scale-oriented" approach to an "efficiency-oriented" one. Behind the growth in performance, improvements on the underwriting side have played a crucial role. In 2025, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance's combined cost ratio was 99.66%, successfully controlled below the breakeven line of 100%. In 2024, this figure was still at 104.67%, indicating that the underwriting side was still in a loss state at that time. To achieve underwriting profitability, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance seems to have paid the price of "contraction": In 2025, the company achieved insurance business revenue of 3.791 billion yuan, slightly down from 3.857 billion yuan in 2024; The growth rate of scale premiums in the fourth quarter of 2025 was -1.57%, while the same period in 2024 saw a positive growth of 5.91%. Between "expanding" and "strengthening," the management chose the latter, opting to actively reduce poor-quality business and optimize the business structure to gain profit margins. In addition to efforts on the underwriting side, the stable performance on the investment side also supported net profit. In the context of declining market interest rates, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance recorded a financial investment return rate of 4.57% in 2025, an increase of 0.23 percentage points from 4.34% in 2024, while the overall investment return rate rose from 4.47% in 2024 to 5.18%. Thanks to profit retention and a reduction in risk exposure, Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance's solvency cushion has further strengthened. By the end of 2025, the company's core and comprehensive solvency adequacy ratios were both 215.29%, significantly rebounding from 201.82% at the end of 2024, and far exceeding regulatory red lines. It is worth mentioning that the senior management personnel of Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance has recently been finalized. The report shows that Jiang Zhaohui has been appointed as the company's chairman and party secretary. He previously served as the company's interim head, general manager, and chief investment officer; Jiang Zhaohui has a regulatory background and extensive experience in the financial industry, having worked at the Zhejiang Regulatory Bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and Zhejiang Commercial Securities. With the "helmsman" settled, the strategic direction of Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance may become more consistent. However, for Zhejiang Commercial Property Insurance, merely stopping the bleeding is not the end. In the context of deepening reforms in auto insurance and intensified competition in non-auto insurance, how to find new growth momentum while maintaining underwriting profitability will be the main challenge facing management in 2026 Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market has risks, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific circumstances. Investment based on this is at one's own risk.