Ping An profit soars 47pc to 126.6b yuan

Ping An Insurance (2318) reported a 47.8 percent rise in its net profit last year, driven by growth in its life and health insurance business, the Chinese insurance giant said in a filing yesterday.

The group posted a net profit of 126.61 billion yuan (HK$136.11 billion) in 2024, compared with 85.67 billion yuan a year earlier.

The new business value of life and health insurance business, which measures the profitability of new policies sold, grew by 28.8 percent to 28.53 billion yuan thanks to a recovery in market demand and reforms to improve the quality of insurance agents, the filing said.

Ping An's insurance funds' investment portfolio achieved a comprehensive investment yield of 5.8 percent in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points year-on-year.

"Uncertainties in the external environment will still persist," Ma Mingzhe, chairman of Ping An, said in the filing.

The group's number of new customers rose 9.8 percent from a year earlier to 32.07 million last year, the filing showed.

Ping An Life's sales agents grew for 3 consecutive quarters to around 363,000.

The board proposed a final dividend of 1.62 yuan per share in cash, bringing full-year cash dividend to 2.55 yuan per share, up 5 percent from 2023.

Its banking unit, Ping An Bank last week reported its net profit fell 4.2 percent year-on-year last year.

Meanwhile, Zhongan Online P & C Insurance (6060) recorded a net profit of 603 million yuan in 2024, down 85 percent from 3.85 billion in 2023, which included the one-off investment income of 3.78 billion yuan recognized in 2023 when ZhongAn International ceased to be a subsidiary of the company and was accounted for as a joint venture. Revenue rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier to about 33.54 billion yuan.

Reuters and staff reporter