For Hong Kong businesses from tourist hotels to high finance, China is both opportunity and threat. Insurers Prudential and AIA have recently felt the rough side of that.
对于从酒店到高端金融业的香港企业而言，中国内地既带来机遇，也带来威胁。保险公司保诚(Prudential)和友邦保险(AIA)最近就吃了苦头。
China, after all, is an important source of funds and fees. So investors were rattled earlier this month by reports that Beijing had begun levying mainland income tax on the returns from offshore savings-like insurance products sold to Chinese customers. In May, new rules making it harder for mainland customers to open offshore accounts had pushed shares in banks and insurers down as much as 15 per cent.
毕竟，中国内地是重要的资金和费用来源。因此，本月早些时候的报道——北京方面已开始对内地居民持有的境外类储蓄保险产品的回报征收所得税——令投资者感到不安。今年5月，使得内地客户更难开设境外账户的新规，导致银行和保险公司的股价下跌多达15%。
Although banks soon recovered, the insurers haven’t: at near two times book value, they are trading roughly in line with peers elsewhere such as Chubb and Allianz. That’s down from a multiple nearer three before the pandemic when investors were still keen to buy into Asia’s rising middle classes as they got wealthier and older, but remained underinsured.
银行股很快回弹，但保险股却未能回弹：它们的市净率接近两倍，大致与安达(Chubb)和安联(Allianz)等其他地区的同行持平。疫情前的这个数字接近三倍，当时投资者仍热衷于押注这个行业，因为亚洲的中产阶级在不断壮大，变得越来越富有、越来越老，而保险保障仍然不足。