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Ping An Insurance reports better-than-expected result, even as coronavirus took a toll on new sales last year
- But the company’s revenue rose, as did its earning per share and dividend
- An increase in online sales helped it mitigate some of the challenges posed by the pandemic
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Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer by market capitalisation, reported a better-than-expected full-year result on Wednesday, even as the Covid-19 pandemic took a toll on its business.
Its net profit for 2020 fell by 4.2 per cent to 143.1 billion yuan (US$22.1 billion), better than the 131.5 billion yuan forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg.
“The year 2020 was extraordinary as we were challenged by Covid-19,” Peter Ma Mingzhe, the company’s chairman, said in a results announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Ping An – as well as other insurers – was adversely affected by social distancing measures introduced to contain the coronavirus pandemic, as they kept its more than a million agents from meeting clients and selling policies. It also benefited from a one-time tax rule change the previous year.
The value of its new business, an important indicator of performance, dropped 34.7 per cent to 49.6 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion). But its revenue rose 3.8 per cent to 1.3 trillion yuan (US$201 billion). Its earning per share also rose, climbing 5.5 per cent to 7.89 yuan, while its dividend rose 7.3 per cent to 2.2 yuan per share.
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