Ping An Eyes More Takeover Openings - ResearchInChina
Date:2007-08-20
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PING An Insurance (Group) Co (stock code:601318) is considering more acquisitions in the banking sector to give its business a further boost, a senior company executive said yesterday.
The Shenzhen-based insurer will do so when opportunities arise though there is no specific deal now, Richard Jackson, chief finance business officer of the insurer, said yesterday in Hong Kong.
The banking business contributed 1.086 billion yuan (US$143.5 million) in net profit in the first half, against one million yuan a year earlier, due to the acquisition of a bank, the insurer said. The sector accounted for 10.9 percent of its first-half total profit.
Its Shenzhen Ping An Bank Co has a bad loan ratio of 1.1 percent, a sharp fall from 8.2 percent a year earlier as 2.8 billion yuan of bad assets were sold to an asset management firm in the second quarter.
Ping An in June gained the regulatory go-ahead to buy Ping An Bank and merge it with Shenzhen Commercial Bank to form Shenzhen Ping An Bank. The merged bank has a network of about 50 outlets in the cities of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, Shanghai and Fuzhou in Fujian Province.
The bank will expand geographically by opening more branches, Jackson said.
Ping An's gross written premiums rose about 15.1 percent to 43.14 billion yuan in the first half, with individual life and automobile insurance policies leading the way.
The insurer grew its life insurance headcount by 19 percent in the first half of this year to 244,000 from 205,000 while premiums jumped 21.9 percent in the period.
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