Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
Business
Home / Business / Companies

Ping An pushes forward insurance reform to counter coronavirus impact

By Zhou Mo in Shenzhen | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-02-04 10:52
Share
Share - WeChat
The company logo of Ping An Insurance is seen in Beijing, China, August 27, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd said on Thursday the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact its life insurance business to some extent this year, but the situation will get better as it presses ahead with reform.

The new business value of life insurance and health insurance dropped 34.7 percent year-on-year to 49.6 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) in 2020, according to its annual report.

On one hand, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic blocked agents from meeting with their clients face-to-face and, on the other, some customers switched their spending on long-term insurance products to short-term ones amid economic uncertainty, said Jessica Tan, co-CEO of the Shenzhen-headquartered company, explaining reasons for the decline.

"The impact (of the pandemic) will still exist to some extent this year, but we expect to see a better situation," she said at its 2020 annual results announcement media conference held online on Thursday.

Tan said the company has poured great efforts into the reform of its life insurance business, saying it is essential for the sustainable development of the business as demographic dividends of the country shrink.

"We are pushing forward with the reform this year and, hopefully, we will see the results next year when all are finished."

Co-CEO Xie Yonglin added that the company has launched the top-level design of its life insurance reform in 2020 and will roll out pilot programs this year.

While Ping An's traditional insurance business was hit by the public health crisis, its technology business showed significant growth last year as it stepped up efforts to make technological transformation.

Operating profits for its technology business surged 76.4 percent year-on-year to 8.2 billion yuan. The company's online healthcare platform Ping An Good Doctor saw its revenue rise by 35.5 percent on a yearly basis to 6.9 billion yuan in 2020, driven by increasing demand for online medical consultations amid the pandemic.

Overall, the company generated 139.5 billion yuan in operating profits attributable to its shareholders in 2020, increasing 4.9 percent from a year earlier. Net profits attributable to its shareholders fell by 4.2 percent to 143.1 billion yuan.

The company would pay an annual dividend of 2.2 yuan per share in cash in 2020, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier.

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
CLOSE