Ping An Insurance (Group) Company, a leading Chinese life
insurers, saw its net profits soaring 79.3 percent to 5.99 billion
yuan (US$777.9 million) last year, according to the company's
annual report released on Thursday.
Ping An's returns on investment, including earnings from
interests, amounted to 22.36 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) in 2006,
a growth of 129 percent over the previous year. Its earnings per
share stood at 0.81 yuan.
Earnings from its major business increased by 21.3 percent to
81.7 billion yuan (US$10.6 billion), including 69 billion yuan
(US$9 billion) in premiums for life insurance, up 17.2 percent.
By the end of 2006, Ping An Insurance recorded 441.79 billion
yuan (US$57.4 billion) in gross assets and 36.67 billion yuan
(US$4.8 billion) in shareholders' equities.
Ma Mingzhe, chairman of the Ping An Insurance, said the company
was planning to expand into the banking and assets management
sectors.
(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2007)