Ping An Insurance:-1 of Best Global Insurance Brand

Overview of Ping An Insurance

Ping An Insurance, also known as Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd., is a Chinese holding conglomerate whose subsidiaries primarily deals in lots of business models such as insurance, banking, financial services, asset management, financial services, healthcare, auto services, and smart-city.

The company was established in 1988 and has its headquarters in Shenzhen. “Ping An” is a Chinese phrase that literally translates as “safe and well.”

On the Forbes Global 2000 list, Ping An Insurance is placed seventh, while on the Fortune Global 500 list, it is ranked twenty-first.

China’s largest insurer, with US$110 billion in net premiums written in 2019, the company is often regarded as the country’s largest. In March 2021, the company’s market value will be US$217 billion, making it the largest insurer in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ping An Insurance is one of the top 50 firms on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and it is headquartered in Shanghai.

The company’s stock is also a component of the Hang Seng Index, which is an index of the top 50 firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CSI 300 Index, FTSE China A50 Index, and Hang Seng China 50 Index are all pan-China stock indices that include Ping An Insurance.

Ping An Insurance has been selected to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for the year 2019.

It was the first insurance company from the People’s Republic of China to be included in the index. Ping An Insurance is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which is backed by the United Nations, and was the first asset owner in mainland China to join the initiative.

Ping An Insurance has routinely ranked as the world’s top global insurance brand, and as of 2020, it was the world’s most valuable global financial brand, according to Brand Finance.

Financial services, health care, auto services, and smart city services are just a few of the ecosystems that Ping An Insurance helps to support with new technologies.

Through its proprietary artificial intelligence-based medical system, the Company assists its in-house medical team of more than 1,800 members in the provision of 24/7 one-stop medical services to users, including online consultations, referrals, registrations, online drug purchases, and delivery of drugs in as little as an hour.

Ownership of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company

Ping An Corporation is a publicly listed company. Ping An took advantage of expanding reforms beginning in the 1990s to become the first Chinese financial institution in which foreign corporations may buy equity.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were among the early investors. The company eventually went public in 2004, first listing in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai, where it was listed in 2007.

As of the end of December 2020, the Charoen Pokphand Group was the largest shareholder in Ping An, with a 7.85 percent interest.

Ping An is classified as a civilian-run enterprise, according to the law. Author Richard McGregor, who wrote The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, has stated that “the true ownership of substantial parts of its shares remains unclear” and that the ownership structure of Ping An is a “murky organization.”

The New York Times revealed in October 2012 that family and allies of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had shares in Ping An Insurance worth at least US$2.2 billion in 2007, according to the newspaper.

They paid the equivalent of 40 cents per share, while others who purchased at the same time paid as much as $1.20.

Because of favorable regulatory treatment and licensing, the company has been able to grow into a diversified financial institution with holdings in insurance, brokerage, and banking services.

When The New York Times published its story on Premier Wen Jiabao, his family responded by stating that the newspaper’s statement about their family’s riches was “untrue.”

On Wen’s behalf, two attorneys later issued a statement, disputing the other allegations and saying that the premier’s 90-year-old mother has never held a US$120 million investment in Ping An Insurance, as the newspaper had previously claimed.

HSBC purchased 48.22 percent of H shares through a variety of HSBC subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2009, HSBC owned 16.80 percent of Ping An’s total shares, making it the company’s largest stakeholder.

In a press release issued on December 5, 2012, HSBC revealed that they were selling its full 15.57 percent shareholding to Thailand giant Charoen Pokphand for HK$72.736 billion (about US$9.385 billion; HK$59.00 per share).

The transaction would be divided into two phases, the second of which would be subject to approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The first phase would be paid in cash, while the second would be funded by a loan from the China Development Bank to Charoen Pokphand. Charoen Pokphand received clearance in February of this year.

The deal was completed on May 10th, despite the fact that Charoen Pokphand did not receive a loan from the state-owned China Development Bank. According to HSBC, the acquisition would result in a 0.5 percent boost in the bank’s Tier 1 Capital ratio, as well as a post-tax gain of US$2.6 billion for the company.

HSBC had an above-average anticipated CET1 ratio of 8.5 percent in the 2011 European Union bank stress test under the unfavorable scenario; nevertheless, HSBC elected to increase its capital by selling Ping An Insurance.

The actual ratio as of December 31, 2012, was 12.3 percent, representing a 2.2 percent increase over the previous year.

Operations of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company

As a result of its international expansion, Ping An Insurance has operations in every province of the People’s Republic of China, as well as in Hong Kong and Macau through Ping An Insurance Overseas.

Lufax, OneConnect, and Ping An Insurance Good Doctor are among the companies that have expanded their operations internationally. OneConnect has offices in ten countries outside of China and serves around 27 of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Business Model of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company

Its embrace of technology, demonstrated by its use of a diverse range of financial technology platforms and services for consumers, has helped it to become a diversified financial behemoth.

After receiving funding from international corporations such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in 1994, Ping An Insurance has grown subsequently since the mid-1990s.

Ping An Insurance was acquired by HSBC in 2002, and the bank holds a significant stake in the company.

As a result of ABN AMRO Asset Management’s split from ABN AMRO in late 2007, Ping An Insurance agreed to purchase a 50 percent share in Fortis Investments, a subsidiary of Fortis. However, the deal was abandoned in October 2008 due to financial difficulties.

As of June 2009, Ping An has become a strategic stakeholder in Shenzhen Development Bank, which was founded in 1989.

Ping An Healthcare and Technology (Ping An Good Doctor) completed a Series A investment round in 2016, raising a total of US$500 million, making the company’s valuation at US$3 billion for the first time.

Additionally, for $1.6 billion, Ping An Insurance acquired a 48 percent share in the Chinese car website Autohome Inc. from Telstra Corp.

In February 2018, three technology companies of Ping An Insurance completed a private placement financing, which garnered strong responses from institutional investors, notably from those in the foreign community.

They were Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited, Ping An Medical and Healthcare Management Co., Ltd, and OneConnect Financial Technology Co., LTD.  Ping An Good Doctor was the first technology unicorn to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which happened in May 2018.

After gaining a virtual banking license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May of this year, Ping An One Connect Bank formally began operations in June of that same year. OneConnect Financial Technology was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December of this year, 2019.

Earlier this year, the business announced its healthcare ecosystem plan as well as its health-tech successes, which included a three-pronged strategy for Ping An’s growth. Lufax, one of China’s biggest online wealth management platforms, will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2020.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Ventures as a venture capital firm.

Ping An Ventures, a $150 million venture capital fund that focuses on developing entrepreneurs, was established by the company in 2012.

Over 100 startups were invested in, including Chinese app-based ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing and a shopping platform Meituan, US health insurance company Oscar Health, diagnostic company Hycor Biomedical, fintech company Taulia, and online payment platform Payoneer, among other companies.

A total of $27 million in equity capital was raised by the social trading brokerage company eToro in 2014, with Ping An and SBT Venture Capital leading the way.

Business Transformation Enabled by Technology in Ping An Insurance

The research and development department at Ping An invests 1 percent of its revenues (which accounts for 10 percent of its annual profits) in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing.

The company plans to do so for the next ten years in order to transform its financial services and support the development of five ecosystems: financial services, healthcare, automobile, real estate, and smart city services.

At least one of such ecosystems has more than 598 million users connected to it. Ping An has established a number of successful fintech and health tech enterprises over the years, including Lufax Holding, OneConnect, Ping An Good Doctor (1833. HK), and Ping An HealthKonnect.

It is the industry leader in the areas of artificial intelligence medical imaging and natural language processing.

For example, Ping An’s AskBob Doctor has placed first in one of the three tasks in MEDIA 2021, an artificial intelligence healthcare question-and-answer contest hosted by the Association for Computational Linguistics, a question-and-answer contest hosted by the Association for Computational Linguistics and sponsored by the Association for Computational Linguistics.

Make a donation to the Global Voyager Fund via Ping An Insurance

After establishing a $1 billion Hong Kong-based corporate fund, Ping An developed the Ping An Global Voyager Fund, which is focused on early-stage and established financial technology and health-tech assets.

It has made over 350 million dollars in investments into over a dozen businesses located in European countries as well as Asia and North America, including an artificial intelligence startup called Laiye.

The fund’s largest investment to date was $45 million in a German fintech company called Finleap.

A Citigroup veteran of 18 years and a former Chief Innovation Officer at Ping An, Jonathan Larsen is the fund’s chairman and CEO.

• Insurance Companies • Financial Institutions

Life and Health are intertwined as a business of Ping An Insurance.

Ping An Life, Ping An Annuity, and Ping An Health are the names under which the Company performs its life and health insurance business.

Sales agent recruitment interviews were conducted using an artificial intelligence (AI) interview robot developed by the company.

As of the end of 2019, AI-based agent recruitment interviews accounted for 100 percent of all agent recruitment interviews, with Ping An Life conducting more than six million AI-based interviews and saving more than 680,000 hours over in-person interviews.

AskBob, the agents’ proprietary smart personal assistant, provides agents with a variety of sales-enabling technologies to aid them in increasing sales conversions and increasing their productivity.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company in Property and Casualty Insurance (P&C Insurance)

Ping An Property & Casualty insures all lawful property and casualty insurance business, including auto insurance, corporate property and casualty insurance, engineering insurance, cargo insurance, liability insurance, guarantee insurance, credit insurance, home contents insurance, accident and health insurance, and international reinsurance.

It makes use of modern technologies in order to enhance online customer development and to improve the service system in general. The Ping An Auto Owner app had more than 25 million monthly active users as of December 2019. Auto service apps in China are at the top of the rankings.

As a pioneer in online claims services, Ping An Property & Casualty is also a leader in the industry. In order to automate the entire claim-processing method, the Ping An Smart Claims Solution combines artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, including claim submission, instant inspection and payment, appraisal and roadside assistance, and car parts procurement, among other things.

In China, the solution’s artificial intelligence image recognition can precisely match each claim with databases that provide information on automobiles, auto parts, repair facilities, and service prices.

Insurance firms can calculate the proper damages to be paid out in seconds, reducing the possibility of claims leakage and insurance fraud. Third-party services, including towing, parts suppliers, and claims adjusters, are also integrated into the solution.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company In Banking

With technological advancements in retail banking and corporate banking, Ping An Bank aims to become China’s most outstanding and world-leading smart retail bank, with a purpose to become China’s most outstanding and world-leading smart retail bank.

The Bank is continuing to seek data-driven operations while also enhancing financial risk management capabilities. With the empowerment of non-state-owned enterprises, small and micro-businesses, and the provision of financial services to poverty alleviation organizations, Ping An Bank has strengthened its ability to serve the real economy.

Ping An In Asset Management Business

Controlling the assets is a key component of Asset Management.

It operates its asset management business through a number of subsidiaries, including Ping An Trust, Ping An Securities, Ping An Financial Leasing, Ping An Asset Management, and Ping An Financial Leasing.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company in Trust Business

Ping An Trust, a subsidiary of the company, and Ping An New Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary, provide trust services.

To better serve the real economy, Ping An Trust has developed cutting-edge models and channels, constructed a broad platform for unique assets, integrated high-quality resources, assisted the real economy in mitigating risks, and offered firms suitable investment banking services. A smart, digital benchmark for technology applications in the sector continues to be established by Ping An Trust.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company in Stocks and Subsidiaries Business

Ping An Securities and its subsidiaries, including Ping An Futures, Ping An Caizhi, Ping An Securities (Hong Kong), and Ping An Pioneer Capital, provide securities brokerage, futures brokerage, investment banking, asset management, and financial advisory services. Ping An Securities and its subsidiaries, including Ping An Futures, Ping An Caizhi, Ping An Securities (Hong Kong), and Ping An Pioneer Capital, are part of the company’s securities business.

Ping An in other Businesses

Ping An Financial Leasing, Ping An Asset Management, and Ping An Overseas Holdings are some of the other asset management organizations in Taiwan. Using cutting-edge technologies, Ping An Financial Leasing helps businesses grow and prosper worldwide. It offers worldwide insurance.

Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), as well as specialized markets in China, are the company’s primary targets. Ping An Asset Management is in charge of the company’s domestic investment management business.

Other investors can benefit from its investment products and third-party asset management services.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Market

Ping An has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (a subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing) since the 24th of June 2004 with the ticker symbol SEHK: 2318, which stands for “Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.”

A listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SSE: 601318 has been in effect since the first day of March 2007.

Ping An was selected as an index stock for the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) in 2004, taking over for Anhui Expressway, which had been picked previously.

As stated on May 11, 2007, Ping An will become a Hang Seng Index Constituent Stock (Blue Chip Stock) with effect from June 4, 2007. The announcement was made by the Hang Seng Index Services Company.

ESG

In addition, the financial organization is the first asset owner in China to sign both the Climate Action 100+ and the United Nations Principle of Responsible Investment agreements (UNPRI).

Ping An’s decision, according to PRI CEO Reynolds, represents “a watershed moment in China’s journey toward complete adoption of ESG.”

With ethical investments ranging from renewable energy to affordable healthcare, Ping An has amassed more than RMB 1 trillion (US$140 billion).

It has extended green credit lines totaling more than RMB 62 billion (US$8.5 billion), with a total loan balance of more than RMB 24 billion (US$3.4 billion) at the end of 2019. As a result, it became the first Chinese company to join the United Nations Principles for Sustainable Insurance.

It has made history by becoming the first insurance company from mainland China to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for 2019. (DJSI).

The Asset Magazine’s Triple-A Sustainable Investing Awards for Institutional Investors, ETFs, and Asset Servicing Providers recognized Ping An as the ESG Investor of the Year for Insurers, China.

On the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, the group presented “A Letter from Ping An to the Earth,” in which it announced a thorough upgrade of green finance initiatives as well as quantitative green finance performance targets.

It pledged to support China’s objective of being carbon neutral by 2060, to contribute to the fight against global climate change, and to promote social development that is environmentally friendly and economically viable.