Economy

Ping An Insurance H1 net profit up 27.9%

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-25 02:28

HONG KONG - Ping An Insurance, China's second largest insurer listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, said Tuesday that its net profit rose 27.9 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2010.

Ping An's net profit hit 9.87 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in the first half, and its first-half-year revenue reached 93.8 billion yuan, up 28 percent from a year earlier, Ping An Chairman Ma Mingzhe said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Ping An's earnings per share stood at 1.3 yuan, up 27.5 percent year-on-year, said the company, which was based in South China's boomtown Shenzhen.

Strong growth in the first half was partly attributable to the sharp increase in written premiums of the insurance business, and partly due to the strong growth in profit generated by banking, securities and trust businesses, said Ping An.

On insurance business, Ping An said net profit in the first half rose 10 percent year-on-year to 7.64 billion yuan, from 6.94 billion yuan of the first half of 2009.

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According to the statement, Ping An's first-year written premiums from individual life insurance business soared 52.1 percent year-on-year, and its premium income from property and casualty insurance business jumped 61.1 percent from a year earlier.

On banking operations, Ping An said its strategic investment in Shenzhen Development Bank made breakthrough progress and Ping An Bank delivered strong results and robust business growth in the first half.

Net profit from the banking division amounted to 1.10 billion yuan in the first half, a 91-percent surge from 577 million yuan a year earlier, it said.

Ping An said it held controlling 29.99 percent of shares of Shenzhen Development Bank, which had already started to contribute profit to Ping An since May.

"Our investment in the banking business achieved substantive results as we made steady progress in our strategic investment in Shenzhen Development Bank," said Ma.

While Ping An Bank achieved good performance, realizing a net profit of 900 million yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 56 percent. The bank's non-performing loan ratio was controlled at an industry leading level of 0.45 percent and capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.8 percent, according to the statement.