Ping An net drops 30pc to 68b yuan

Ping An Insurance (2318) said its interim net profit fell 29.7 percent to 68.68 billion yuan (HK$77.35 billion) from a year ago, the biggest first-half drop since 2008, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted its offline operations and volatile equity markets and changes in fair value dragged down its investment income.

The insurer posted an interim dividend of 80 fen per share, an increase of 6.7 percent year on year.

In the first half, its total revenue dropped 1 percent to 683.28 billion yuan. Operating net profit rose 1.2 percent to 74.31 billion yuan.

For the core insurance business, the operating profit of its life and health insurance segment rose by 6.4 percent to 51.54 billion yuan. But new business value declined by 24.4 percent to 31.03 billion yuan as the pandemic disrupted offline operations.

Its property and casualty insurance business saw operating profit decline 17.6 percent to 8.27 billion yuan, with the combined ratio rising 1.5 percentage points to 98.1 percent.

As of June 30, Ping An's retail customers increased by 4.6 percent from the beginning of 2020 to 210 million. The insurer has 18.09 million new customers in the first half, of whom 35.4 percent were sourced from internet users.

For its banking business, Ping An Bank's net profit dropped 11.2 percent to 13.68 billion yuan, dragged down by rising credit provisions.

The net interest margin fell 0.03 percentage points to 2.59 percent due to the decreasing loan prime rate and ample liquidity in the money market. Non-performing loan ratio remained at 1.65 percent. The core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio fell 0.18 percentage points to 8.93 percent.

Operating profits for its technology business grew 23.5 percent to 4.05 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the normalization of changes brought by Covid-19 has posed challenges to China Life Insurance's (2628) operations, and that it is planning to adjust its full-year operating budget, according to President Su Hengxuan.

China Life Insurance saw an 18.8 percent decline in first-half net profit to 30.54 billion yuan. Its total revenue rose 12.5 percent from a year ago to 504.43 billion yuan during the first six months, with new business value growing 6.7 percent to 36.89 billion yuan.