NET PROFIT UP BY 4.26BN YUAN AT PING AN

Hong Kong-listed insurer Ping An has reported net profit of 4.26bn yuan for 2005, up from 3.14bn yuan in 2004. Gross written premiums were 70.8bn yuan, up from 64.9bn yuan the year before. Most of Ping An’s profit comes from the life sector, contributing 3.55bn yuan. Non-life contributed 422m yuan — up from 217m yuan the year before — and other business 292m yuan. Within non-life, gross written premiums increased 19% to 22.07bn. Claims rose 18.4% to 5.25bn yuan. The combined ratio dropped to 95.3% from 97.2%. Ping An P/C’s national market share of gross written premiums moved up to 9.9%. Ping An CEO Ma Mingzhe said that “the improvements were a result of a better product mix in both businesses, cost control and improved total investment returns”. Chief operating officer Louis Cheung said that Ping An planned to expand its fledgling banking and asset management operations so that within a decade banking, asset management and insurance would each contribute a third of earnings. Ping An is also considering investment in the infrastructure sector after the recent deregulation announcement from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC). Chairman Peter Ma said late last week that the company had set up a team a year ago and had reserved certain amount of capital for investment in infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley said on Friday that it was maintaining its “equal weight” opinion on Ping An P/C, although it said that there had been a 25 basis point downward change in yield assumption for 2006 to 2009.