Ping An 2318

Re: Ping An 2318

Postby la papillion » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:32 pm

Warren said that the insurance business isn't going to be good for the near future. Not sure if he refers to US or globally though.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:53 am

Really regret that I did not hold on to my puts on Ping An :(

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18-07-2008 08:43:50
Ping An: No timeframe on share sale; Fortis undervalued

SHANGHAI, July 18 (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd <2318.HK> <601318.SS> has not set a timeframe for its proposed new share issuances either in Shanghai or Hong Kong, chairman Ma Mingzhe told shareholders, state media reported on Friday.

In separate comments at the company's shareholder meeting on Thursday, General Manager Zhang Zixin sought to reassure investors the investment in Dutch-Belgian financial services firm Fortis had long-term value despite losses of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in the stake.

Ping An holds a roughly 5 percent stake in Fortis group and it also owns half of Fortis' investment management business.

Zhang said he believed the share price of Fortis had been undervalued, according to media reports.

Zhang said Ping An would continue to invest in overseas markets but may focus more on non-financial sectors.

"In the future, Ping An will explore more investment opportunities abroad in infrastructure and commercial property projects," the official Shanghai Securities News quoted Zhang as saying.

"In the meantime, (Ping An) will make more inputs in the asset management business to improve its global product lines," he said.

Sources told Reuters in June that Ping An had agreed to set up a fund management joint venture with Singapore's United Overseas Bank to offer mutual fund products to Chinese financial consumers. (For details: [ID:nSHA326969]) NO TIMEFRAME In January, Ping An announced it had made a surprise move to issue new shares, aiming to raise more than 100 billion yuan, which in part contributed to sharp declines of domestic stock markets as investors were deeply concerned about market liquidity.

Chinese securities regulator later approved Ping An's fund-raising plan amid growing anger from domestic investors, including some economists and scholars, who had said Ping An's plans for a huge equity issue had helped to send stock markets sharply lower.

On Thursday, Zhang told investors at the meeting that Ping An had not yet settled any timeframe for fund-raisings either via its local currency yuan-denominated A-shares or H shares.

Zhang also noted that the company "cannot control its share price movement, which reflects the relationship of supply and demand on the market".

Ping An's A-share price by Thursday's close had fallen to about one fourth of its peak, while the Shanghai benchmark index <.SSEC> had fallen about 50 percent from its peak.

Ma, also a co-founder of Ping An, reaffirmed that Chinese tax authorities had not yet discovered any problems in its investigation of Ping An's tax filings.

"This tax investigation is just a routine tax check and it is expected to be completed within this year," said Ma.

"So far, everything is normal," he added.

Ma also denied market rumors that Ping An had provided gifts of shares to senior government leaders.


"We feel extremely frustrated about such rumors, and this is totally unfair to Ping An as we didn't gift any relatives of government leaders even one cent share of Ping An," Ma said.

Some shareholders at the meeting also questioned whether the company could afford Ma's salary, after he was ranked by Forbes China magazine in a recent survey as "China's most expensive boss" for his annual income exceeding 60 million yuan.

"The most important thing is that my performance and contribution to Ping An are worth my salary," Ma said.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:59 am

la papillion wrote:Warren said that the insurance business isn't going to be good for the near future. Not sure if he refers to US or globally though.


Insurance business has never been really that good compared to other industries.

Life policies needs about 7 years to breakeven due to the high agency cost.

Non-Life business has very low or no margins.

The insurance business that WB has, is in reinsurance ie. insurance to the insurance companies. Non-Life reinsurance was good after 911 as the reinsurers could charge whatever they want. However, Life & Health Reinsurance has not really gone anywhere for the past 10 years except for Admin Re and Block Purchases.

WB also said to invest within your circle of competence :)
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby LenaHuat » Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:32 am

I recall WB gave that comment in the context of BH having secured a record-shattering 2007.
Yes, the money is in reinsurance but one has to hve the financial muscle to do this.
But if U follow WB's comments, he's pushing auto insurance aggressively on his website :lol:
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby la papillion » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:06 am

Thks Lena and winston :) I've learnt some bits and pieces of insurance and re-insurance business. Sounds interesting :)
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:56 pm

Not vested.

China's Ping An Insurance 2Q profit falls 39.5 pct

By Kennix Chim

HONG KONG, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Co (2318.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China's second-largest life insurer, posted a 39.5 percent decline in second-quarter profit on Friday as a drop in investment income, due to a sharp fall in the stock market, offset growth in premiums.

A near-50 percent tumble in China's domestic stock market and rising claims related to an earthquake and snowstorms earlier in the year have squeezed first-half profits at Chinese insurers, and a continued decline in share prices threatens to crimp second-half earnings.

Ping An (601318.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which owns 5 percent of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis, reported net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.39 billion yuan (US$347 million) in the three months ending June 30, based on Reuters calculations, compared with 3.95 billion yuan in the same period last year.

The insurer reported net profit attributable to shareholders of 9.49 billion yuan in the first half of 2008, compared with 9.69 billion yuan in the year-earlier period.

On average, four analysts polled by Reuters expected the Shenzhen-based company, which trails market leader China Life Insurance Co (2628.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(LFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), to earn 7.72 billion yuan in the first half, with estimates ranging widely from 5.6 billion yuan to 9.3 billion.

In March Ping An, which is 17 percent-owned by global bank HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(0005.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), agreed to pay 2.15 billion euros ($3.37 billion) for 50 percent of Fortis' asset management business, building on an initial investment in the company last year as it looks to diversify overseas, beyond its core insurance business.

Fortis has since said approval from Chinese authorities has been delayed and is expected later in the year.

REDUCE EQUITY PORTFOLIO

Due to China's tumbling local A-share market this year, Ping An reported 9.3 billion yuan in total investment income in the first half of 2008, down 64 percent from the same period last year, due to an impairment loss of 1.6 billion yuan.

Its net investment yield inched down to 3.8 percent from 4.3 percent a year ago.

Due to the fluctuations in the capital markets, Ping An increased its fixed maturity investments to 64.2 percent of its total investment assets as at end of June, from 47.7 percent as at end of December, while equity investments decreased to 15.6 percent from 24.7 percent.

The Shanghai benchmark index .SSEC has shed half its value this year on the global sell-off and China's measures to curb inflation.

Ping An reported gross written premiums were up 23.6 percent to 54.2 billion yuan in the first half, but its property and casualty (P&C) business posted a 55 percent drop to 339 million yuan, due to payouts for natural disasters.

The company obtained shareholder approval earlier this year to raise about $16 billion in one of the world's biggest corporate fund raisings, and plans to use part of the money for acquisitions.

The capital-raising plan battered Ping An's share price and roiled the Shanghai stock market, and the firm said in May that it would not issue new domestic shares for at least six months.

Ping An's Shanghai-listed A shares have dropped 61 percent so far this year while its Hong Kong shares are down 41.6 percent, compared with a 24 percent decrease in the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI during the same period.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:36 am

Not vested.

Outlook cautious at Ping An
KatherineNg

Ping An Insurance (2318), China's second-largest insurer, said the outlook for the second half would be "cautious" as it is challenging to meet last year's growth.

"We have been shifting our portfolio more to bond investment from equities, as the rising yield environment could help stabilize our investment return," said chief executive Louis Cheung.

He added core businesses were healthily steady, integrated strategies were taking effect, and crossing-selling businesses were on the rise. "During the first half about 60 percent of new credit cards were generated from the insurance team," he said.

The Shenzhen insurer has reported a 2 percent drop in net profit during the first half due to an 87.6 percent decline in investment earnings. Insurance and banking sectors recorded 27.8 percent and 17.4 percent underlying growth.

Cheung declined to forecast if Ping An needed to provide funds for possible losses in the Fortis investment in the coming half-year. "It all depends on the market environment, it's too early to tell if it will reflect in the balance sheet or not."

The Fortis investment has recorded a paper loss of HK$10 billion. Cheung rejected rumors that the acquisition faced regulators' objections and said there is no plan yet to increase the stake to 7 percent.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:51 pm

Ping An might shift fundraising to HK
By Justine Lau in Hong Kong and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Ping An Insurance, China's second-largest insurer, is considering raising money in Hong Kong after plummeting Chinese share prices and government disapproval postponed the company’s earlier plan to sell stock and convertible bonds worth more than $20bn.

“We are dual-listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are open to both markets,” Louis Cheung, group president, told the Financial Times. “At the end of the day, our shareholder interests and market conditions will dictate what we should do.”

Ping An won shareholder approval in March to issue 1.2bn new Shanghai-traded shares, which would raise $7bn based on its current share price, down from more than $16bn it could have raised based on its share price when it first announced the plan in January.

A proposed sale of convertible bonds would bring a further $5.8bn.

The plan was blamed by some investors for triggering a steep slide in the Shanghai stock market, which has fallen 62 per cent from its peak last October.


Regulatory officials have voiced their concerns over what would have been the largest amount ever raised in a share sale in mainland China and the company said in May the plan would be put off until at least November.

Ping An has said it wanted to use the money for acquisitions, part of an aggressive expansion strategy that saw it take a 5 per cent stake in Belgo-Dutch financial conglomerate Fortis late last year. In March, the company also acquired half of Fortis’ asset management business for €2.15bn, although it has not yet won regulatory approval in China, prompting concerns of a delay.

Mr Cheung said Monday that the purchase was proceeding normally and that approval was expected by the end of the year.

“It has taken us a bit of time to prepare the documentation and the translation,” said Mr Cheung.

“It's a 30-country business, right after a large integration between Fortis and ABN Amro. For all the lawyers and translators to agree on the final documentation, it's proved to be slightly more complicated than we had expected.”

Mr Cheung also shrugged off a clause in the purchase agreement, mentioned in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange but not in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange, that requires the deal to be done before October 31 this year.

“The deadline can be extended,” said Mr Cheung.

Another discrepancy between the filings made in Hong Kong and Shanghai in relation to the acquisition is that in the Shanghai document, Ping An says the deal can be called off if the annual income of the asset management business drops 20 per cent or more.

“The 20 per cent is a normal standard clause. The likelihood of this clause [stopping the deal from proceeding] is very low.

“If you look at all the conditions, it is very unlikely,” said Mr Cheung, who said the article was not contained in the Hong Kong filing because of different disclosure requirements.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby winston » Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:57 am

Ping An Insurance dives on Fortis rumours

HONG KONG, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Ping An Insurance, <2318.HK>, China's second largest insurer, dived 8.7 percent on Friday on a rumours that Fortis, in which is 5 percent owned by the Chinese company, had asked a rival bank for assistance to shore up its liquidity position.

At 0321 GMT the stock was down 7.9 percent at HK$48.45, after Fortis shares sank as much as 21 percent to 14 year-lows in Amsterdam and Brussels on Thursday.

"The sell-off has been fuelled by rumours about Fortis. While the news, if true, is bad, we don't see any significant impact on Ping An as most of the risk has already been priced in," said an analyst with a Asian brokerage on Friday.

On Thursday, the Belgian-Dutch financial services group denied market talk that the Dutch Central Bank had asked rival group Rabobank to support its liquidity position.
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Re: Ping An 2318

Postby kennynah » Fri Sep 26, 2008 12:00 pm

actually, this company named themselves very well...Ping An...

collect insurance policy premiums and hope all customers Ping Ping An An...every one happy like dat...they makan all the premiums and make minimal payments out..hahaha..
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