EQUITY INVESTMENTS PUSH PING AN H1 GAIN UP 83% TO 4.1BN YUAN

China-based and Hong Kong-listed composite Ping An has reported first-half net profits of 4.1bn yuan, up 83% year on year, on the back of improved returns on equity investments. Turnover rose 34.1% to 43.7bn yuan for the first half of the year, compared with H1 2005. Realised investment gains for the period recorded a profit of 2.09bn yuan, compared with 190m yuan in the same period last year. Unrealised gains were 1.78bn yuan, up from 209m yuan. The Shanghai A-share market rose by 42% in the first half and the booking of realised and unrealised gains led analysts to warn that Shenzhen-based Ping An’s numbers were now more vulnerable to an equity market correction. Net investment income yield was 4.2%, with an estimated yield on all investments of 5.8% a year. Life premiums grew 19.9% to 29bn yuan, while p/c business was up by a third to 8.4bn yuan. Operating profit rose 76.5% to 4.7bn yuan. Ping An did not release claims levels or details. Meanwhile, Ping An has announced the incorporation of its group insurance business into its pensions operations. It said that this was an adjustment, not a withdrawal from the group insurance market. Ping An’s group insurance operations are understood to have incurred losses for the past few years, with premiums sliding by 1.8bn yuan since 2003. The adjustment sees group insurance’s position as one of the three main pillars of Ping An’s structure — the other two being bancassurance and individual life — vanish. The pensions operation looks likely to be upgraded to a “first-grade” subsidiary.