Ping An Insurance

Ping An Insurance known also as Ping An of China, full name Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. is a Chinese financial services holding company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, banking, asset management, financial services. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. "Ping An" literally means "safe and well". It is ranked as China’s 5th largest company.

In 2023, Ping An ranked 16th on the Forbes Global 2000 list and 33rd on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An ranked 31st among the World's top 500 Most Valuable Brands and sixth among global financial enterprises in the Global 500 Report by Brand Finance.

Ping An Insurance is one of the top 50 companies in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It is also a constituent stock of Hang Seng Index, an index of the top companies in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Ping An Insurance was also included in the pan-China stock indices CSI 300 Index, FTSE China A50 Index and Hang Seng China 50 Index.

Business
Ping An Insurance Group started off in 1988 as a property and casualty insurance company, later diversifying into insurance, banking, asset management, financial services and healthcare services.

Ping An has licenses to offer financial services, including insurance, banking, trusts, securities, futures and financial leasing.

Ping An has also adopted an integrated financial model on a mix of business lines, including life insurance, P&C insurance, banking and securities. The company invests 1% of its revenues into R&D each year to branch out its businesses, adopt technology and support the building of its healthcare and elderlycare ecosystem.

Since the mid-1990s, Ping An has been subsequently taken investments from overseas firms such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in 1994. In 2002 HSBC took a large equity interest in Ping An. In early 2008, Ping An agreed to take a 50% share in Fortis Investments, a subsidiary of Fortis, which had taken over ABN AMRO Asset Management as a result of the split up of ABN AMRO in late 2007; the deal was canceled in October 2008.

In June 2009, Ping An became a strategic investor in Shenzhen Development Bank, (now part of Ping An Bank).

In 2012, the company created Ping An Ventures, a $150M VC fund which invested in over 100 companies, such as Didi Chuxing, Hycor Biomedical, Meituan, Oscar Health, Payoneer, Taulia, and others. In 2014, together with SBT Venture Capital Ping An led a $27M funding round for eToro.

In 2016, Ping An Healthcare and Technology (Ping An Good Doctor) completed a Series A funding round of a total of US$500 million, making its valuation hit US$3 billion. Ping An also bought a 48% stake in Chinese car website Autohome Inc. from Telstra Corp. for $1.6 billion.

In February 2018, three technology subsidiaries of Ping An completed private placement financing, which received positive responses particularly from international institutional investors. They were Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited, Ping An Medical and Healthcare Management Co., Ltd and OneConnect Financial Technology Co., LTD.

In June 2019, Ping An One Connect Bank officially commenced operation after receiving a virtual banking license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019. In December 2019, OneConnect Financial Technology was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2019, Ping An became the first insurance company from mainland China to be selected for the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index (DJSI).

In October 2020, Lufax, one of China's leading online wealth management platform, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In May 2021, Ping An released the Ping An Zhen Yi Nian healthcare brand. The product line was mainly targeted at supporting urban elderly care communities, and integrates corporate finance, medical care and health technology.

In July 2021, Ping An and Shionogi signed agreements to launch joint ventures in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Ping An-Shionogi is a Healthcare as a Service (HaaS) enterprise, an integrated medical and healthcare platform for public health and patients. The joint venture is a collaboration between the Ping An and Shionogi on drug research, development, production and sales.

In October 2021, Ping An Bank rolled out services under the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect pilot scheme.

In January 2022, Ping An Life (a subsidiary of Ping An) received approval from the CBIRC for its investment in New Founder Group.

In July 2022, OneConnect (Ping An's fintech subsidiary) listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by way of introduction and dual-primary listing.

In February 2023, Ping An Bank Hong Kong Branch was granted an insurance agency license by the Hong Kong Insurance Authority.

In November 2023 it was entered into the MSCI KLD 400 Social Index.

As of December 31, 2023, Ping An has grown its health ecosystem in China by partnering with the country’s top 100 hospitals and 3A hospitals, 50,000 in-house and contracted external doctors and 230,000 pharmacies. Customers entitled to service benefits in the healthcare and elderlycare ecosystem accounted for over 73% of Ping An Life's new business value in 2023.

Ownership
Ping An is a publicly listed company.

As of 31 December 2023, Charoen Pokphand Group is the single shareholder in Ping An, holding a 5.84% stake. The Shenzhen government, via Shenzhen Investment Holdings, owns a 5.29% stake as the second largest shareholder.

Ping An has the classification of a civilian-run enterprise. Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, said that "the true ownership of large chunks of its shares remains unclear" and that the ownership of Ping An is a "murky structure". In October 2012, The New York Times reported that relatives and associates of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao controlled stakes in Ping An worth at least US$2.2 billion in 2007.

HSBC acquired 48.22% of H shares by means of different HSBC subsidiaries (H shares accounted for 34.83% of the share capital as at 31 December 2009, which was later increased to 41.88% in 2015 ). HSBC holds 16.80% of total shares of Ping An, making it the biggest shareholder as of 31 December 2009.

Markets
Since 24 June 2004 Ping An has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing) as SEHK: 2318. Since 1 March 2007, it has a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as SSE: 601318. Since 19 June 2023, its yuan-denominated shares has a listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as SEHK: 82318.

Ping An replaced Anhui Expressway in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) in 2004.

The Hang Seng Index Services Company announced on 11 May 2007, that Ping An would join as Hang Seng Index Constituent Stock effective on 4 June 2007.

Operations
Ping An has operations across all of the People's Republic of China, and in Hong Kong and Macau through Ping An Insurance Overseas. Lufax, OneConnect and Ping An Good Doctor have now expanded overseas. OneConnect serves 100+ customers in 20 countries and regions mainly in Southeast Asia.

ESG
Ping An has invested more than RMB128 billion in clean energy and affordable healthcare, through initiatives such as "Ping An Carbon Neutral Green Finance Development Charitable Trust" which supports and promotes green and low-carbon projects. It has extended credit lines towards companies with green initiatives, with a balance of loans as of December 2023 exceeding RMB3.146 billion. It was the first Chinese company to join UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance.

Ping An also established the Ping An Biodiversity and Environment Conservation Charitable Foundation, China's first charitable foundation dedicated to the conservation of mangrove ecology. The foundation funds the protection and restoration of mangrove ecosystems, construction of ecological corridors for waterfowl, and scientific education. The initial donation amounted to RMB10 million from Shenzhen Ping An Public Welfare Foundation.

In February 2023, Ping An was rated A− in the climate change category by CDP for its transparency and execution in addressing climate change. CDP, an internationally renowned non-profit organization, scored the report with data submitted by nearly 15,000 companies in 2022.[60] In the same month, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance (Ping An P&C) launched its first ocean carbon sink index insurance policy in the city of Dalian, which provides carbon sink risk protection of RMB400,000 for a 8,867 square meters area of kelp, shellfish and algae.