People are seen inside of a branch of Ping An Insurance in Shanghai on Nov 26, 2012. (PETER PARKS / AFP)
Rapid fintech development drove a sharp increase in earnings for Ping An Insurance last year, letting the Chinese mainland firm report significantly higher profits than expected on Tuesday.
Ping An generated revenue of 974.57 billion yuan last year, a 25.8 percent increase from 774.49 billion yuan previously
Ping An net profit attributable to owners of the parent was 89.09 billion yuan (US$14.08 billion) for last year, 42.8 percent up from 2016. It generated revenue of 974.57 billion yuan, a 25.8 percent increase from 774.49 billion yuan previously.
The firm said health-care unit Ping An Good Doctor has built a nationwide health partnership network comprising doctors, hospitals, third-party health managers and pharmacies. It had more than 190 million registered users at the end of last year.
Ping An Good Doctor planned to list in Hong Kong and has filed an initial public offering application with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. It raised US$400 million at a post-money valuation of US$5.4 billion in its pre-IPO financing.
Lufax, Ping An’s online wealth management and personal lending technology platform, became profitable for the first time last year. It had 461.7 billion yuan in assets under management, up 5.3 percent from the beginning of last year.
Social health insurance unit Ping An Healthcare Technology and OneConnect, a fintech platform for small and medium enterprises, raised US$1.15 billion and US$650 million respectively early this year by completing their first rounds of financing.
“The company has accelerated its ‘finance + technology’ transformation,” Ma Mingzhe, Ping An’s chairman, said in the results statement. “We have developed applications for diverse scenarios, integrated the applications into core technological capabilities, and exported the capabilities to serve society.”
To meet customer requirements in fintech and healthtech business, Ping An will develop ecosystems of financial services, healthcare, auto services, real-estate services and smart city this year by leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data and security.
The insurer continued to enhance the service capabilities of both traditional financial channels and internet channels. The number of retail customers grew 26.4 percent to 166 million at the end of last year. The tally of new customers increased to 46.3 million, while 40.4 percent were internet users.
Ping An proposed a dividend of 1.50 yuan per share for the year, double the 2016 dividend.
Ping An shares closed on Friday at HK$91.25. Its market cap rose above one trillion yuan to a record high over the past year. Earnings were announced after the closing bell.
edithlu@chinadailyhk.com
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