BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd reported a 47.8% rise in its net profit last year, driven by growth in its life and health insurance business as demand recovered.
The group posted a net profit of 126.607 billion yuan ($17.50 billion) in 2024, compared with 85.665 billion yuan a year earlier, the Chinese insurance giant said in a filing released on Wednesday.
The new business value of the life and health insurance business, which measures the profitability of new policies sold, grew by 28.8% to 28.53 billion yuan last year.
The growth was due to a recovery in market demand and reforms to improve the quality of insurance agents, the filing said.
The group’s number of new customers rose 9.8% from a year earlier to 32.07 million last year, the filing showed.
Ping An’s insurance funds’ investment portfolio achieved a comprehensive investment yield of 5.8% in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points year-on-year.
Insurers have poured more funds into stocks as bond yields decline amid the country’s persisting deflationary pressure that is dragging on the revival of the world’s second largest economy.
A rebound in the stock market in the fourth quarter last year after China unveiled a stimulus package to boost the economy has helped boost insurers’ investment gains.
“As China’s interest rate pivot moves downward, the asset side is facing new opportunities and challenges,” Ma Mingzhe, Chairman of Ping An, said in the filing.
“China still faced challenges including lackluster domestic demand, volatile markets, and insufficient confidence in the short- and medium-term amid mounting uncertainties in the external environment,” said Ma.
Beijing has pushed for medium- and long-term insurance funds to stabilize stock markets in what could be a fractious geopolitical setting amid rising tensions between China and the U.S.
Its banking unit, Ping An Bank, last week reported its net profit fell 4.2% year-on-year last year.
($1 = 7.2352 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham. Editing by Mark Potter and Chizu Nomiyama )
