Ping An Insurance profit rises 3.9% in 1H

PING An Insurance Group Co of China, China’s largest insurer by market value, reported a 3.9 per cent rise in first half net profit, the first increase over this period in three years, a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange showed on Tuesday(Aug 23).

The group posted a net profit of 60.3 billion yuan (S$12.2 billion), from 58 billion yuan a year earlier, after two successive years of first half net profit dips as the insurer battled a 54 billion yuan exposure to indebted developer China Fortune.

The group’s gross written premiums fell 2.5 per cent to 283.6 billion yuan from the year before, while the number of retail customers rose 3.2 per cent from the end of last year to 122 million.

Despite the profit rise, Ping An remains cautious.

“Substantial uncertainties will remain regarding Covid-19 as well as the domestic and overseas environment in the second half of 2022,” the chairman of the insurer said in the results, adding that the group faces “severe challenges”.

Its banking unit Ping An Bank posted 25.6 per cent growth in first-half net profit, with a non-performing loan ratio of 1.02 per cent, holding steady from the end of 2021. REUTERS