Ping An Insurance (Group), the country's second-largest insurer,
plans to boost its investment in stocks and infrastructure after
raising 38.9 billion yuan from its Shanghai listing on March 1, the
company's chairman said yesterday.
"We will gradually increase our investment into stocks and
infrastructure projects, especially expressways and water plants,"
Ma Mingzhe told reporters on the sidelines of the annual session of
the National Committee of the CPPCC.
China last year allowed insurers to start investing in
infrastructure projects as a way to boost their investment returns.
Ping An is among the first batch of insurers to run the pilot
program.
"These projects must be long-term undertakings that can generate
stable and robust cash flows," Ma said.
Despite the recent fluctuation in the stock market, Ma believed
insurers' investment in the stock market is still safe because of
the comparatively low proportion.
Statistics show that Ping An poured 15.2 billion yuan into the
stock market in 2006, accounting for 5 percent of its total
capital, which is the ceiling established by the insurance
regulator.
Ma also said that Ping An, which owns Ping An Bank and Shenzhen
Commercial Bank, had no immediate plan to buy into another
commercial bank. But he is considering establishing a fund
management company, although there is no specific plan about how
this would be done; the company could start from scratch or create
it through merger and acquisition.
China has given insurers the go-ahead to branch out into other
financial sectors, such as banking and securities, to help them
become financial heavyweights. Ping An, 19.9-percent owned by HSBC,
already has its own brokerage company, Ping An Securities.
(China Daily March 6, 2007)