BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s Ping An Insurance (Group) Co reported an 8.8% drop in first-half net profit on Tuesday, hit by sluggish investment returns and weaker earnings at its banking unit amid a slowing economy.
The insurance giant had a net profit of 68.047 billion yuan, down from 74.619 billion yuan in the same period last year, a company filing showed.
China’s economy still faces “short- and medium-term challenges including a complex, severe international environment and lackluster domestic demand,” the filing said.
Total investment income fell 30.2% to 5.99 billion yuan in the first half, the filing showed.
Ping An Insurance has reallocated its portfolio, shifting investments from mainland A-shares to Hong Kong-listed stocks, with a particular focus on high-dividend banking shares in the offshore market.
The insurer’s banking unit, Ping An Bank, reported a 3.9% decline in net profit year-on-year to 24.87 billion yuan in the first half, as sluggish loan demand weighed on its performance.
The group’s number of retail customers rose 1.8% from a year earlier to 246.81 million at the end of June, the filing showed.
New business in the value of life and health insurance segment, which measures the profitability of new policies sold, grew 39.8% to 22.335 billion yuan.
(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen ThamEditing by Bernadette Baum and Helen Popper)
