China's largest insurer Ping An Insurance (2318) yesterday said its first-half net profit dipped 1.2 percent yearly to 69.8 billion yuan (HK$75.1 billion), partly due to market volatility.
It increased the interim dividend by 1.1 percent yearly to 0.93 yuan.
Operating profit for the first six months of the year fell 5 percent year-on-year to 82 billion yuan as the annualized operating return on equity contracted by 3 percentage points to 18.2 percent.
The insurer attributed the decline to the short-term market volatility in the first half.
Its major business, life and health insurance, fell 1.7 percent yearly to 58.6 billion yuan, as the operating return on equity shrank 5.6 points to 35.6 percent.
The value of new business in the first half, however, jumped 32.6 percent year-on-year to 26 billion yuan.
Property and casualty insurance products recorded 9.3 billion yuan in net profit, up by 7.4 percent from one year ago, as Chinese residents turned conservative amid concerns about the economic downturn.
The banking business showed strong growth, with the net profit rising by 14.9 percent year-on-year to 25.4 billion yuan. The net interest income decreased 2.2 percent yearly to 62.6 billion yuan, as the annualized net interest margin dropped 0.21 points to 2.55 percent.
Notably, Ping An's individual savings expanded 10.9 percent yearly to 1.1 trillion yuan by the end of June, while corporate deposits slid 1.9 percent to 2.2 trillion yuan.
As the mainland developer crisis triggered fears, Ping An increased its provisions with the coverage ratio rising by 1.23 points in six months to 291.5 percent by the end of June. And the non-performing loans ratio edged down 0.02 points to 1.03 percent.
However, the first-half profit of asset management business slumped 62.3 percent yearly to nearly 2 billion yuan and the operating profit of the tech business dived 57.6 percent to 2.3 billion yuan over the same period.
Separately, New China Life Insurance (1336) said its first-half net profit increased 8.6 percent yearly to about 10 billion yuan, though its total revenues fell 4.5 percent to 49 billion yuan.
New business value grew 32 percent to 26 billion yuan. Bloomberg
