"Second Venture" Launched After 3 Billion Funding, Guolian Life Accelerates Strategic Deployment

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Produced by Damai Finance

Guolian Life Insurance is once again publicly recruiting core management.

Recently, Guolian Group announced on its official website that, based on the needs of Guolian Life’s operations and business development, to further enhance corporate vitality and competitiveness, the group will conduct a public selection for the positions of General Manager and Deputy General Manager (Banking and Insurance Channels) of Guolian Life.

The position of General Manager at Guolian Life has been quite unstable, with four different general managers having been replaced since the company’s founding. Among them, the longest-serving general manager only held the position for just over two years. The previous general manager, Zhao Xuejun, resigned hastily after less than a year in office.

This “public selection” at Guolian Life is not an isolated personnel move but a key move in a larger, ongoing strategic game.

Early in 2026, Guolian Group appointed Wu Ganping as Party Secretary of Guolian Life. According to tradition, this veteran, appointed by the major shareholder Guolian Group and with extensive risk control and financial experience, will soon officially assume the position of Chairman.

Behind these personnel changes is Guolian Life’s official call for a “second startup.” After a record-breaking capital increase of 3 billion yuan in 2025, Guolian Life has gained much more confidence. With the funds in place, the company urgently needs to streamline its organizational structure and refresh its talent pool to unlock higher-quality growth potential.

Guolian Life is currently at a delicate turning point. From a performance perspective, in 2025, the company achieved a net profit of 64 million yuan, continuing its profit trend, but insurance revenue did not hit new highs and was even lower than in 2023. Following a series of personnel adjustments, industry observers are watching to see what changes this regional insurer will undergo.

From personnel to organizational restructuring

Guolian Life was established in December 2014 and is headquartered in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Its shareholders include Wuxi Guolian Development (Group) Co., Ltd. and 15 other large state-owned and private enterprises.

In 2025, Guolian Life’s 3 billion yuan capital increase was approved, marking its largest capital raise since inception, raising registered capital from 2.1 billion to 4.659 billion yuan.

In this capital increase, Guolian Group invested 1 billion yuan, maintaining a 33.33% stake and remaining the largest shareholder. Wuxi Metro Group, Taihu New City Assets, and five other local state-owned platforms in Wuxi jointly invested 2 billion yuan, bringing the state-owned shareholding to over 96%.

At the end of last year, Guolian Group President Gu Wei described the company’s current development stage as a critical period of “second startup” during a strategic review. He emphasized the need to reshape development concepts and growth logic. Subsequently, personnel adjustments and organizational reforms commenced.

Personnel changes at Guolian Life began early last year. In January, Zhao Xuejun officially replaced Xia Han as General Manager. Both Xia Han and Zhao Xuejun were recruited through market-based selection. Before joining Guolian Life, Zhao Xuejun served as Deputy General Manager at Zhongrong Life. The recent open recruitment for General Manager appears to follow this approach.

After taking office, Zhao Xuejun clarified the company’s strategy to shift towards dividend insurance and long-term premium payment models. However, in October 2025, Guolian Life announced that Zhao Xuejun resigned for personal reasons, and the company appointed Niu Leilei as interim head. Zhao Xuejun’s tenure lasted just over nine months.

Mid last year, Ding Wubin, who had served as Chairman for nearly nine years, stepped down due to age. Guolian Group Vice President Qian Fang was appointed as Party Secretary of Guolian Life. Qian Fang previously worked over a decade at Wuxi Audit Bureau, rising to Chief Auditor, and in May 2023, was appointed Vice President of Guolian Group.

It is noteworthy that when Qian Fang was appointed as acting Chairman, the board explicitly proposed her as a candidate for Chairman, pending regulatory approval. However, in a February meeting this year, Wu Ganping attended as Party Secretary of Guolian Life. This indicates that Qian Fang’s transitional period has ended, and the company may soon have a new Chairman to lead.

Wu Ganping, born in 1972, has held key roles in several subsidiaries of Guolian Group, including Deputy General Manager of Guolian Finance, Deputy General Manager of Guolian Group’s Audit and Supervision Department, and General Manager of Risk Management. At Guolian Life’s first extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in 2026, Wu Ganping was elected as a director.

Alongside personnel adjustments, Guolian Life has undergone large-scale organizational restructuring.

In March this year, Guolian Life implemented a restructuring plan, merging several departments at headquarters, renaming the Innovation Business Department to the Agency Business Department, establishing a new Digital Intelligence Empowerment Department, and consolidating multiple departments from the Wuxi branch with headquarters. The goal of this restructuring is to reduce costs and improve efficiency, as well as enhance departmental collaboration, though the results remain to be seen over time.

Volatile quarterly profits

In 2025, after the 3 billion yuan capital increase, Guolian Life’s capital strength was significantly enhanced, and its annual operations showed substantial profit growth, moderate premium recovery, and sharp quarterly fluctuations.

The solvency report shows that in 2025, Guolian Life achieved a net profit of 640 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 485.1%, with markedly improved profitability. Investment performance was steady, with an annual investment yield of 4.20% and a comprehensive investment return of 3.21%, providing strong support despite volatile equity markets and declining interest rates.

Additionally, the 3 billion yuan capital injection in the second quarter restored the company’s solvency adequacy ratio. At the end of Q1, Guolian Life’s overall and core solvency ratios were 103.97% and 54.74%, approaching regulatory red lines. By the end of 2025, solvency had recovered to healthy levels, easing capital pressure.

Despite the strengthened capital base, growth in insurance business revenue remained sluggish. In 2025, total insurance revenue was 6.726 billion yuan, up only 2.3% year-on-year, far below the pace of asset expansion.

Quarterly, the growth rate turned positive in Q1, rebounded to 11.7% in Q2, but slowed in H2, with Q4 experiencing a 9.9% decline. This reflects limited momentum for new business growth and constrained business rhythm adjustments.

Meanwhile, net profit fluctuated sharply each quarter: 740 million yuan profit in Q1, a plunge to -3.11 billion yuan in Q2, then rebounding strongly to 3.00 billion yuan and 4.44 billion yuan in Q3 and Q4, respectively. The fourth quarter alone accounted for 87.4% of the annual profit, indicating high profit concentration and ongoing issues with asset-liability matching and profit smoothing mechanisms.