Ping An sees profit surge in first nine months of 2024
Ping An sees profit surge in first nine months of 2024 | Insurance Business Asia
Insurance News
Ping An sees profit surge in first nine months of 2024
Outlook and strategic plans unveiled
Insurance News
By
Roxanne Libatique
Despite ongoing challenges in China’s broader economic environment, the group reported significant gains in operating and net profit, along with strong growth in the new business value (NBV) of its life and health division.
The company also recorded a 36.1% jump in net profit attributable to shareholders, amounting to RMB119.2 billion. Total revenue for the period climbed 8.7% year-on-year to RMB861.8 billion.
The company’s core segments – life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance (P&C), and banking – collectively contributed RMB119.7 billion to operating profit, representing a 5.7% year-on-year rise.
In addition, the new business value (NBV) for Ping An’s life and health insurance segment saw a substantial increase of 34.1% year-on-year, amounting to RMB35.2 billion, driven by strong demand for integrated health and senior care services.
Performance of Ping An’s life and health insurance segment
Ping An’s life and health insurance segment reported strong performance, with a 34.1% rise in NBV for the first nine months of 2024.
The company credited this growth to its “4 channels + 3 products” strategy, which emphasises improving operational efficiency across multiple sales channels. In particular, the company enhanced productivity in its agent channel, which saw a 31.6% year-on-year increase in NBV, supported by a focus on recruiting higher-quality agents and improving the sales skills of its existing workforce.
By September 2024, Ping An had approximately 362,000 individual life insurance sales agents, with the NBV per agent growing by 54.7% year-on-year.
The bancassurance channel also performed strongly, posting a 68.5% year-on-year increase in NBV due to better operational management at bank outlets.
The community finance channel, which has been an area of innovation for the group, delivered a notable 300% increase in NBV, driven by better retention rates for orphan policies and a more efficient customer service model.
Expansion of health and senior care
As part of its broader strategy, Ping An continues to expand its offerings in the health and senior care sectors, integrating these services into its core insurance products.
Over the first nine months of 2024, the company provided health management services to more than 19.5 million customers. It has also grown its senior care services, covering 75 cities in China as of the end of September, with plans to open premium senior care communities in five cities starting in 2025.
Ping An’s approach to combining insurance with value-added health and senior care services has become a major driver of growth.
By the end of the third quarter of 2024, 69.6% of Ping An Life’s NBV was derived from customers who used the company’s health or senior care services. The integration of these services is seen as a key differentiator in the competitive Chinese insurance market.
Performance of Ping An’s P&C and banking
Ping An’s P&C insurance business delivered stable growth in the first nine months of 2024, with revenue up 4.5% year-on-year to RMB246 billion. The company’s combined ratio improved by 1.5 percentage points, reaching 97.8% during this period.
Ping An Bank, the group’s banking subsidiary, also reported a slight increase in net profit, up 0.2% year-on-year to RMB39.7 billion.
The bank’s retail assets under management rose by 2.9% since the beginning of 2024, reaching RMB4.1 trillion by the end of September. Corporate loan balances grew by 11.6% to RMB1.6 trillion, with the core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio rising to 9.33%. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio remained stable at 1.06%.
Technology integration and risk management
Ping An has continued to invest heavily in technology, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance both customer service and risk management.
In the first nine months of 2024, AI-powered service representatives handled around 80% of the group’s customer inquiries.
Meanwhile, Ping An Life leveraged AI for policy underwriting, with 93% of policies processed within seconds. Smart claims technology allowed Ping An Life to close claims in an average of 7.4 minutes.
The company’s focus on smart risk management resulted in RMB9.1 billion in claims savings from fraud detection over the reporting period.
Ping An also continues to lead globally in patent applications among financial institutions, with a total of 53,521 patent filings as of September 2024, including applications in the field of generative AI.
Outlook and strategic focus
Looking forward, Ping An expects China’s long-term economic fundamentals to remain strong despite short-term uncertainties.
The company anticipates continued opportunities for growth in the health, senior care, and financial services sectors. It plans to further advance its “integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy, focusing on technology-driven solutions and enhancing operational efficiency.
Ping An said it remains committed to driving sustainable business development by leveraging its core financial businesses and expanding its health and senior care ecosystems.
The group’s efforts to integrate these services into its insurance offerings are expected to continue playing a pivotal role in its growth strategy.
As of the end of September 2024, Ping An’s retail customer base reached 240 million, with 25.1% of customers holding multiple contracts across the group’s subsidiaries. The company continues to explore cross-selling opportunities to deepen customer relationships and improve retention.
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