CHINA INSURANCE Aug.1-31 2010 No.74
OVERSEAS BULLETIN Sun Life sees China premiums doubling this year LATEST EVENTS China to see a new wave of listings by insurers FROM THE WACHDOG New rule gives insurers more investment options ANALYSIS China mulls insurance market easing for foreign firms STATISTICS China insurance industry assets total $672b at end-July
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CONTENTS CONTENTS
OVERSEAS BULLETIN
Sun Life sees China premiums doubling this year...... 1 Aviva applies for asset management license in China ...... 2 Taiwan insurers allowed to enter mainland equity market...... 2 CITIC-Prudential Life plans to move headquarters to Beijing ...... 2 Allianz, Volkswagen tout insurance teamwork, target BRICs ...... 3 Chinatrust seeks mainland partner, still interested in AIG unit...... 4 Liberty Mutual Group expands business to China...... 5
LATEST EVENTS
Taikang, Sunshine Insurance plan HK IPO...... 6 PICC expands business ties with China Southern Airlines...... 6 Insurers eyeing shipping insurance in Shanghai ...... 6 8th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress convenes ...... 7 China promotes certificate for personal insurance employees...... 8 Generali China Life introduces password service...... 8 CNinsure announces senior management reshuffle ...... 8 Guangdong pushes for fire insurance on public gathering places...... 9 Shanghai certified 65 insurance intermediaries in credit ratings ...... 9 China Life’s pilot rural insurance expanded to 16 provinces...... 10 China’s first national family insurance sales and service organ set up ...... 10 Shanghai World Expo handles 563 insurance claims...... 10 Henan announces agricultural insurance plan...... 10 New policy will mean lower medical costs...... 11 100 million Chinese to receive social insurance cards in 2010...... 11 Huijin to inject 88b yuan in Exim Bank, Sinosure...... 12 Sinatay Life Insurance to expand capital base ...... 12 PICC ventures abroad ...... 12 Insurer ups volume of aid ...... 13 More than 75m Chinese have social security cards ...... 13 Life insurers to pay $2.19m after NE China plane crash ...... 14 China to see a new wave of listings by insurers...... 14 China Life falls most in 9 months as profit disappoints Citigroup, UBS...... 15
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CONTENTS
FOCUS ON AIA
AIG talking to big investors on AIA IPO...... 17 China consortium may bid for AIG's Asian insurance unit...... 17 China Cinda bids for AIA stake ...... 18 More questions than answers for AIA deal ...... 18 China Life not keen on AIA stake buy...... 21
FOCUS ON PING AN
Ping An Property Insurance OKed to double capital ...... 23 Pricing row gives SDB, Ping An merger jitters ...... 23 Ping An tops CEIBS List of China's private sector companies...... 25 Discovery to take stake in Ping An Health...... 26 Ping An Insurance H1 net profit rises 27.9%...... 26 China Ping An posts 3.7% ROI...... 28 Ping An to diversify investment channels...... 29 Ping An may get 1.64b Shenzhen Bank shares...... 29
NEW PRODUCTS
Allianz China Life targets bank wealth management clients...... 30 China Pacific Life plans long-term financing plan ...... 30 Cathay Life’s new medical insurance features premium return...... 30 Great Wall Life insures family happiness ...... 30 Ping An Life, Bank of Communications to introduce high-end product...... 31 Heng An Standard Life launches critical disease insurance...... 31
ECONOMY
China's July PMI for non-manufacturing sector rises to 60.1%...... 32 China's economic growth to slow to 9.2% in Q3...... 32 High trade surplus 'likely to remain' ...... 33 China's July CPI rises to 3.3% ...... 34 China's June PPI up 6.4% on year ...... 35 China's July new lending drops to 532.8b yuan...... 36 China's July retail sales up 17.9%...... 37 chinadaily.com.cn ------
CONTENTS China's industrial output up 13.4% in July ...... 37 China fixed-asset investment up 24.9% in first seven months...... 38 China Q2 consumer confidence index rises: Nielsen survey ...... 38 China's FDI up nearly 30% in July ...... 39
FROM THE WATCHDOG
Shenzhen to conduct auto insurance trial in Oct...... 40 New rule gives insurers more investment options ...... 40 China's financial sector steps up self-examinations...... 41 CIRC reviews Sichuan’s development of insurance brokers ...... 42 Insurance for servicemen greatly raised...... 42 Watchdog urges settling of farm insurance claims...... 43 Insurance regulatory body set up in Tibet...... 43
ANALYSIS
China mulls insurance market easing for foreign firms ...... 45 Low investment income to dog top Chinese insurers ...... 47 Protect rural elders ...... 48
STATISTICS
Xinjiang H1 premium income up 11.05% ...... 49 Premium income of Jiangxi hits 14.89b yuan...... 49 Shenzhen recorded 18.23b yuan in H1 premium income, up 30% ...... 49 Liaoning insurance premium grows 37.7% in first half...... 49 Shanghai life insurance premium up 37.9% in H1 ...... 50 Chongqing insurance income up 37% in H1...... 50 Henan tops nationwide by insurance premium growth...... 50 Yangguang Agricultural H1 premium income down 36.41% ...... 51 25,000 athletes buy injury and disability insurance every year ...... 51 Anhui underwriting profit at 310m yuan in H1 ...... 52 Beijing auto insurance enjoys 21.1% premium discount ...... 52 China’s bancassurance grows 100 times in a decade ...... 52 Inner Mongolia P&C underwriting profits rise...... 53 Taikang Life H1 premium income rises 49% ...... 53 Shandong premium income up 31.19% year on year ...... 53 chinadaily.com.cn ------
CONTENTS
Coverage of property insurance for home less than 15% in Shanghai...... 54 Shanxi insurance market sees stable growth in H1...... 54 China Life January-July premium income 204.6b yuan ...... 54 Taiping Life premiums reach 21.35b yuan by July 31...... 55 CPIC Jan-July premiums total 85.9b yuan...... 55 Taiping's P&C Insurance unit drives group H1 profit growth ...... 55 PICC H1 profit soars 32 times ...... 56 China insurers report loss on rising reimbursements of traffic insurance...... 56 China insurance industry assets total $672b at end-July...... 57 Auto insurance companies record 2.9b yuan in losses...... 57 China Life Q2 net drops 27% ...... 57 China Pacific Insurance net income rises on premiums growth, cost curbs ...... 59 Some insurers’ settlement interest rate of universal insurance in H1...... 60 January-July insurance industry figures...... 64 January-July premiums of life insurance companies ...... 65 January-July premiums of property insurance companies ...... 67 January-July premium income of all regions...... 69
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OVERSEAS BULLETIN
Sun Life sees China premiums doubling this year (2010-08-02) Sun Life Financial expects premium growth at its China insurance venture to more than double this year, a senior executive said, after receiving approval to turn the company into a Chinese-owned entity.
Sun Life Everbright will also likely begin making a contribution to Sun Life's overall bottom line in about five years and is aiming to rank among China's top 10 insurance companies, Dikran Ohannessian, president of Sun Life Financial Asia, told reporters.
"We've got a good bunch of partners in China who we work very well with, and we're very confident about our future there," Ohannessian said. "Our shareholding is smaller now, but we still have seats on the board and we're growing our position in China, which is important to us."
China's insurance regulator approved Sun Life Everbright's proposals to raise funds and revamp its shareholding structure earlier this month, in a move that will see Sun Life's stake in the Chinese insurer being diluted in return for approval in becoming a Chinese-owned entity.
Sun Life Everbright collected about 1.26 billion yuan ($185 million) in premiums in 2009, the company said, and will be focusing on its bancassurance and group insurance businesses as it further ramps up on its growth efforts.
"The outer core of every product may seem different, but inside we're looking at the same risk management model which is something Sun Life is very strong in from our years of experience," Ohannessian said.
China's insurance market is dominated by homegrown companies such as China Life and Ping An, but the country's low insurance penetration rate has made it an attractive target for many companies.
Sun Life Everbright was set up in April 2002 as a 50/50 joint venture between Canada's Sun Life Financial and China's Everbright Group.
Sun Life will retain its four seats on the Chinese venture's board, but the number of seats will be raised to 12 from the current eight, Ohannessian said. "We're still very involved in the business," he said. "Our president, our CEO, they still fly in regularly for talks with Everbright. It's not like we only meet once every quarter. It's an ongoing conversation."
China Everbright Bank, Everbright's banking unit and China's 11th biggest lender, is aiming to complete its $2.9 billion Shanghai initial public offering by mid-August, but Ohannessian said it was too early to say if Sun Life Everbright will go public.
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Aviva applies for asset management license in China (2010-08-05) Aviva Plc, the world's fifth-largest insurance group by premiums, applied to Chinese regulators to set up an asset-management joint venture with Central China Securities Co last year as the company is looking to expand its presence in China's asset-management market, Simon Machell, chief executive officer of Aviva's Asia-Pacific operations, said August 5.
"We see long-term prospects for creating value for our shareholders in the asset management space, hence we are applying for a license, but it may take a little time for that to come through," Machell told reporters. He didn't provide more details about the fund joint venture.
Aviva, through its Aviva-Cofco Life Insurance joint venture, operates in 40 cities in 10 Chinese provinces. It entered the country's insurance market eight years ago. The life-insurance venture expects to open one more branch in China this year, Machell said.
Taiwan insurers allowed to enter mainland equity market (2010-08-05) Taiwan's financial supervisor plans to allow the island's insurance companies to invest up to 10 percent of their overseas allocation quota in the mainland equity market by the end of this month to seek higher investment returns.
The move is expected to channel more than NT$300 billion ($9.44 billion) into stocks, corporate bonds, government debt, initial public offerings, exchange-traded funds and yuan deposits on the mainland.
Taiwan insurers will be permitted to invest up to 10 percent of their overseas allocation quota in stocks on the mainland, five percent of the quota in government and treasury bills, and their investment in shares or bonds of a single company will be limited to under one percent of the quota, the supervisory body said in a statement on its website on August 4.
CITIC-Prudential Life plans to move headquarters to Beijing (2010-08-05) CITIC-Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd is considering relocation of its headquarters from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to Beijing, people familiar with the matter told reporters.
An anonymous source told reporters that Beijing, the home of more than 30 insurance companies, has special attractions to insurers because most regulators are in the capital, so administrative efficiency could be improved.
Industry insiders say another reason might be CITIC-Prudential’s less profitable business performance. Its premium income for the first half of this year is 2.69 billion yuan ($359.18 million), ranking only No 6 in foreign-invested life insurers. Its premium income rankings had been in third or fourth places over the
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OVERSEAS BULLETIN past several years.
The failed takeover of American International Group’s Asia arm by Prudential Plc may also be a factor in the move.
The 50:50 joint venture between State-owned CITIC Group and British insurer Prudential Plc is the first Sino-British life insurance company, founded in 2000 in Guangzhou.
Generali China Life Insurance Co Ltd and AVIVA-COFCO Life Insurance Co Ltd have already moved their headquarters from Guangzhou. The city has headquarters only for CITIC-Prudential and Allianz Insurance Company.
Allianz, Volkswagen tout insurance teamwork, target BRICs (2010-08-10) Allianz is strengthening its ties with Volkswagen in Germany and in emerging markets to boost profit in the fiercely competitive car insurance market.
Europe's biggest insurer said it had signed a letter of intent with Volkswagen Financial Services to expand their 60-year-old sales cooperation deal and add a focus on the growth markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
"Business with automotive manufacturers is a key global growth market in the highly competitive auto insurance business", said Allianz Chief Executive Michael Diekmann in a statement on August 10.
China has overtaken Germany as Volkswagen's biggest market, while Brazil is the third largest for the carmaker. It also is aggressively expanding in India and Russia.
Premiums in Germany's 20 billion euro motor insurance market have been shrinking for years, with listed insurers such as Allianz, Axa and Generali locked in a price war of attrition with mutually owned insurers like HUK-Coburg.
"The market seems to be splitting, with some companies signaling that they will no longer compete with the same intensity and others sticking to the policy they've followed for the last few years," a HUK spokesman said.
Prices this year did not appear to have fallen further and in some cases had been adjusted upwards, the spokesman said.
"The key is whether these adjustments will be long lasting, and there you can be sceptical," he said, adding that companies' true pricing plans for 2011 will only start to become clear in September or October.
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Chinatrust seeks mainland partner, still interested in AIG unit (2010-08-11) Chinatrust Financial Holding Co, the parent company of Taiwan's largest credit-card issuer, said August 11 it is looking for a partner in the Chinese mainland to help expand its mainland business, and it would also renew its bid for American International Group Inc (AIG)'s Taiwan unit should the chance arise.
Chinatrust's president, Daniel Wu, said the financial conglomerate hopes to find a local bank in the Chinese mainland for a "strategic alliance" in the near future, but it has no concrete plans yet.
In July, Chinatrust said it would apply to set up a branch in Shanghai under its banking unit, Chinatrust Commercial Bank, with working capital of 800 million yuan ($119 million), revising an earlier plan to establish a subsidiary bank in the Chinese mainland.
Chinatrust said at the time its Shanghai branch would initially focus on Taiwan clients, but it intended to deepen its development in the mainland’s financial market over the longer term.
Under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed in June, the mainland will allow Taiwan banks operating on the mainland to conduct business in the yuan after they have established a branch in the mainland for two years and will allow such branches to apply to offer yuan loans to mainland-based Taiwan companies under certain conditions. But mainland and Taiwan banks cannot directly invest in each other yet.
Wu, who was speaking at Chinatrust's second-quarter investors conference, reiterated his company remains interested in buying AIG's Taiwan life insurance unit, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.
But he said Chinatrust would wait until the Taiwan government completes its review of the bid for Nan Shan Life by a consortium led by Hong Kong's China Strategic Holdings Ltd before making any moves, repeating comments he made in July.
The China Strategic-led consortium entered an agreement in October 2009 to buy Nan Shan Life for $12.5 billion. Last month, China Strategic and AIG agreed to extend the deal's deadline until October 12.
The acquisition approval has been delayed by concerns in Taiwan that China Strategic, a former battery maker, has no experience in operating an insurance company and is backed by Chinese funds. Chinese mainland companies and individuals are prohibited from holding controlling stakes in Taiwan companies in most industries, including insurance.
Wu said that if the government rejects Nan Shan Life's acquisition by the China Strategic consortium, Chinatrust would talk to AIG again about buying its Taiwan unit. Chinatrust was one of several bidders for Nan Shan Life last year but lost out to the China Strategic consortium.
Wu said Chinatrust will continue to look for other acquisition targets in the insurance sector if China Strategic's purchase of Nan Shan Life gains approval.
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OVERSEAS BULLETIN
Chinatrust, which issues monthly profit figures, said its preliminary unaudited net profit in the second quarter was NT$3.756 billion ($117.8 million), steady from the first quarter's NT$3.759 billion.
Its preliminary unaudited first-half net profit soared to NT$7.52 billion from NT$353 million a year earlier, boosted by the global economic recovery, sales of nonperforming loans in the US, and declining bad debt.
Liberty Mutual Group expands business to China (2010-08-23) Boston insurance giant Liberty Mutual Group has been granted approval to begin branch operations in Zhejiang by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).
Headquartered in Chongqing, Liberty Mutual received the CIRC approval in December 2009 to open a branch in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Liberty Mutual is the first foreign property and casualty company to operate in Zhejiang, a province of more than 47 million people located 700 miles south of Beijing on China's southeastern coast. All three of the company's operations in China - Chongqing, Beijing and Zhejiang - will offer personal lines products and a wide range of commercial lines products, according to a statement.
"Liberty Mutual's strategy of being the first insurer to enter markets untapped by foreign companies in China continues to be successful," said Liberty Mutual Group President David Long. "The CIRC's approval of our Zhejiang branch reinforces our reputation as a strong company committed to providing quality insurance in China."
Liberty Mutual has had a presence in China since 1996 when it opened a representative office in Shanghai. In January 2004, the company received approval to open its first insurance office in Chongqing, positioning Liberty Mutual as the first foreign property and casualty insurer with a presence in western China.
In September 2007, Liberty Mutual received approval to have its Chongqing operation converted to a wholly owned subsidiary, which it named Liberty Insurance Co Limited. Liberty Insurance Co is the only Fortune 500 company subsidiary headquartered in Chongqing, according to a statement.
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LATEST EVENTS
Taikang, Sunshine Insurance plan HK IPO (2010-08-03) Taikang Life Insurance and Sunshine Insurance plan to raise $1 billion and $600 million through respective initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Hong Kong Exchange, the 21st Century Business Herald reported August 3 quoting unnamed Hong Kong media.
Taikang Life Insurance recorded premiums of 33.59 billion yuan ($4.95 billion) in the first quarter of 2010, the report said. Sunshine Insurance life policy premiums came to 7.40 billion yuan in the first six months of the year, the report said.
PICC expands business ties with China Southern Airlines (2010-08-04) PICC Property and Casualty, the largest Chinese nonlife insurer, formed a strategic partnership with China Southern Airlines to further develop financial services in addition to their existing insurance cooperation.
Under the agreement, both PICC and China Southern Airlines will build on their current cooperation in aviation, corporate property and group accident insurance for the airline company, as well as directors and officers liability insurance, to expand into financial-related services, annuities, "significant clients" businesses, ticketing, information-based services and other areas, according to PICC.
PICC said China Southern Airlines is one of its most important clients, and the new agreement will help both parties reach a new level of strategic cooperation, said Wang Yincheng, PICC's president, in a statement.
PICC has provided aviation insurance underwriting services since 1974 when it first underwrote aircraft for civil aviation in China. The insurer provides underwriting services for 1,200 aircraft of more than 30 domestic airlines, including China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Air China.
China Southern Airlines is the largest airline in China and carried 66.28 million passengers in 2009. The company was listed on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges in 1997. It was then listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2003.
Insurers eyeing shipping insurance in Shanghai (2010-08-10) Great business opportunities created by Shanghai turning itself into an international shipping hub are drawing rising attention of insurers at home and abroad.
They are eyeing related supplementary shipping insurance projects. The People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Ltd (PICC), China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd (CPIC), Zurich Financial Services and Chartis Insurance Co are the most interested.
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LATEST EVENTS
On August 9, CPIC and PICC each gained approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), the top Chinese insurance regulator, to establish a shipping insurance operation center in the city. They have six months to prepare.
Establishing such operation centers indicates that insurers will launch professional operating mechanism reform as well as integrating management on shipping insurance business, said an industry observer.
Zurich Financial Services recently set up an international shipping and financial R&D center with the Pudong New Area of Shanghai to research new technology, development and trends emerging in international shipping and financial, an effort to boost the city's construction of being an international shipping hub and a global financial center.
Chartis rolled out innovative insurance products like port & dock comprehensive insurance and logistics operator comprehensive liability insurance in the city.
Shanghai is boosting the ambitions, which as a result will bring huge opportunities to shipping insurance, a service platform connecting the shipping industry and the financial industry.
Becoming an international shipping hub will depend much on being a global financial center. It ranks No.1 in the world in terms of cargo throughput but contributes little to global shipping insurance. .
After the establishment of the shipping insurance operation centers, insurers there will still suffer shortages in information, talents, and a say in the global shipping insurance sector, reiterated the industry observer.
He said that in addition to attaching more importance to talent cultivation and related insurance research, they should suggest authorities establish a shipping information platform and launch related supporting policies as soon as possible.
The CIRC Shanghai bureau has begun researching shipping insurance-related innovation policies and supporting measures.
8th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress convenes (2010-08-10) The 8th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress was held in Chongqing recently. The conference brought together 6800 Chinese life insurance officials from 17 countries and regions, including more than 4,000 Chinese overseas and more than 300 board chairmen or CEOs of major insurance institutions.
During the four-day event, 62 meeting sessions were held to discuss topics such as insurance marketing, financial planning, insurance awareness, and others.
The Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress is held in every two years and has become the
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LATEST EVENTS largest-scale exchange platform for the Chinese life Insurance industry.
Insurance salesmen should pay more attention to the whole claim settlement procedures of insurance rather than how much money they will earn from one insurance policy sold, said Liang Tianlong, chairman of the congress.
China promotes certificate for personal insurance employees (2010-08-10) A certificate program for employees of the personal insurance industry, launched by the Insurance Association of China and backed by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), has been actively promoted in China.
The number of people taking the exam to get the certificate increased by 30 percent and this year it is expected there will be 80,000 people taking the exam.
Since its launch in 2005, the certificate has been gaining popularity in China, spurred by the rapid growth of China’s life insurance market and customers’ need for more professional help.
Generali China Life introduces password service (2010-08-10) Generali China Life Insurance Co Ltd has recently introduced password services in its e-commerce website, enabling customers to edit information in insurance policies and use certain wealth management services online.
This service requires customers to set a query password and a trading password. The query password is used to make inquiries about personal information, policy information and settlement progress, as well as file claims.
CNinsure announces senior management reshuffle (2010-08-11) CNinsure Inc, a leading independent insurance intermediary company operating in China, on August 11 announced a management reshuffle to reallocate resources for the establishment of its four new profit centers -- insurance brokerage business, telemarketing and internet sales, consumer credit brokerage business and wealth management distribution business.
Li Chengbin, vice president of the company, will resign from his current position as head of the company’s life insurance unit and take up new assignments at the group as vice president for human resources management and strategic planning. He will spearhead the execution of the company's human capital strategy and will be in charge of business model optimization for the profit centers of the company.
Jin Feng, chief operating officer and chief information officer of the company, will assume the additional
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LATEST EVENTS role of the head of the life insurance unit. The resignation and appointment will be effective immediately.
Li has been vice president and head of the life insurance unit since February 2008. From 2000 to 2008, he held various management positions at the company, including assistant vice president, department general manager and general managers of various insurance agencies or financial service firms controlled by the company.
Jin has been chief operating officer of the company since November 2008 and chief information officer since November 2007. Prior to joining CNinsure in October 2007, Jin's work experiences included the positions of assistant president and chief information officer of New China Life Insurance Co Ltd, and sales manager and financial planner at the US-based Prudential Insurance Company of America.
Guangdong pushes for fire insurance on public gathering places (2010-08-11) The new fire regulation in Guangdong province, which becomes effective October 1, will require operators of public gathering places to buy public liability insurance for fire risks, and that means recreational places such as bars and Karaoke houses all need to buy such insurance.
Shenzhen, the boomtown in Guangdong province, conducted pilot insurance programs in places of entertainment from May 1 to October 31 last year.
The sales of public liability insurance for fire risks are doing well because of the government’s support, a salesperson from Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd said.
By January 15, 2010, as many as 1234 organizations had bought such insurance, with the rate of insured reaching 99.6 percent.
Premiums of public liability insurance for fire risks are decided according to the scale and nature of the buying organizations, such as on which floor the place is located and its fire prevention facilities.
The premiums range from hundreds to tens of hundreds of yuan and the insured sums are usually 200,000 yuan to three million yuan.
Shanghai certified 65 insurance intermediaries in credit ratings (2010-08-11) Shanghai has certified 65 insurance intermediaries in its 2009 insurance intermediaries credit ratings. The number accounts for 22 percent of the total intermediaries.
The rating is based on the intermediaries’ business scale, integrity, capability and service quality and evaluated by counterpart intermediaries, policyholders, insurance companies, regulators and industry organizations.
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LATEST EVENTS Intermediaries only contributed a small part of Shanghai’s premium income, data from the Shanghai Insurance Regulatory Bureau show. They accounted for 7 percent of the total premium income in the first half this year, while part-time insurance agencies accounted for 49 percent.
China Life’s pilot rural insurance expanded to 16 provinces (2010-08-12) The two pilot rural insurance projects by China Life Insurance Co Ltd have been successful in Heilongjiang province. Out of this, the short-term insurance premium income has reached 150 million yuan ($22 million), and the projects covered more than 100,000 people by the end of June.
The two projects, namely rural insurance and insurance for rural small loans, have been expanded to 16 provinces and autonomous regions in China.
China’s first national family insurance sales and service organ set up (2010-08-12) Guofu Family Insurance Sales and Service Co Ltd has been set up in Beijing. It’s the first national company of its kind in China.
Tong Shude, chairman and general manager of Guofu, said that family insurance is a comprehensive insurance involving both property insurance and life insurance. He added that Guofu will meet all the insurance needs of a family, as it can simultaneously operate property insurance and life insurance products of several insurers.
While enhancing the insurance awareness of families and promoting family insurance plans, the company will launch comprehensive family insurance services, increase professional training and carry out self-help education for standardized client management.
Shanghai World Expo handles 563 insurance claims (2010-08-12) As of July 31, the Shanghai World Expo co-insurance body has received 563 cases of insurance claims, including 476 about personal casualties and 117 about property damages, according to a source with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission Shanghai Branch.
Among the 563 cases, 316 have been settled, with a settlement rate of 54.3 percent. Up no now, there has been no complaint about settlement of insurance claims concerning the Shanghai World Expo.
Henan announces agricultural insurance plan (2010-08-13) Henan province announced last month the 2010 Agricultural Insurance Action Plan and convened a meeting recently to make specific arrangements.
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The plan has specific provisions on policy agricultural insurance, including underwriting species, scope, liabilities, insurance amount, premium rate, insurance operation form, financial subsidy, risk control and business operation.
The underwriting species include corn, wheat, rice, cotton, sows, cows, tobacco leaves, and broilers, among which wheat is a newly added species.
Insurance liability for crops include storm, flood, typhoon, drought, frost and other catastrophic risks, while those for the breeding industry cover deaths directly caused by critical diseases, natural disasters and accidents.
New policy will mean lower medical costs (2010-08-19) Starting from September 1 this year, personal medical costs can be reduced by 700 million yuan ($103 million) in Beijing because new policies will be adopted for medical insurance, local media reported on August 19.
The new statement, released on August 18 by the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, said expenses for organ transplantation therapy will be cut by a larger amount and 110 more items such as intensive insulin therapy and Gamma knife will be added to the medical service list.
According to the statement, patients with three specific diseases: hemophilia, aplastic anemia and anti-rejection therapy after liver transplantation, which always last a long time and cost a lot, also would be covered.
Over 11 million Beijing citizens with medical insurance will benefit from this new policy.
In China, 3,916 hemophilia cases were recorded by April 13, 2010. But according to a statement released by the Ministry of Health in April, it is estimated that there are 60,000 to 130,000 hemophilia patients.
100 million Chinese to receive social insurance cards in 2010 (2010-08-20) As of the end of 2010, 100 million social insurance cards will be delivered and those who get them can directly pay hospitalization costs via insurance reimbursement, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Hu Xiaoyi said at a forum on August 19.
Hu said that China planned to deliver 800 million social insurance cards during the 12th Five-Year Plan period to let more people enjoy the convenience of the healthcare compensation service.
The card can be used in many fields, such as medical treatment, pension, employment, social welfare,
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LATEST EVENTS social relief and many others, Hu said.
Huijin to inject 88b yuan in Exim Bank, Sinosure (2010-08-20) Central Huijin Investment Co, the domestic arm of China Investment Corp, will inject 88 billion yuan ($12.94 billion) in the Export-Import Bank of China and China Export and Credit Insurance Corp (Sinosure), the Shanghai Securities News reported August 20, citing an unidentified person.
Central Huijin will gain this boost in capital by selling bonds. The company has gotten approval from the People's Bank of China, the central bank for a bond sale of 187.5 billion yuan in total and will sell up to 54 billion yuan of bonds in China's inter-bank bond market August 17.
Huijin may use the rest of the funds to invest in rights offering plans of China's three largest banks, including the Industrial and Commercial bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of China.
The three banks announced plans to raise as much as 180 billion yuan through rights offers this year. Huijin will invest about 100 billion yuan if it fully participates in the lenders' rights issues, according to the report.
Sinatay Life Insurance to expand capital base (2010-08-20) Hangzhou-headquartered Sinatay Life Insurance plans to double its registered capital to 1.2 billion yuan ($176.77 million) this month to fuel its rapid expansion, the company's spokesman said on August 20.
The company's premium income hit 1.17 billion yuan in the first half-year, up 143 percent over the same period of last year.
In April, Japan's second-largest insurer Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company bought a 7 percent stake in the company, pushing its registered capital to 655 million yuan.
PICC ventures abroad (2010-08-23) The People's Insurance Co of China, parent of PICC Property & Casualty, is looking at expanding its overseas investment portfolio when Beijing eases restrictions.
China's largest non-life insurer aims to tap overseas markets by beefing up its investment team.
"We have two considerations for investment," Wu Yan, chairman of the listed insurer and its parent, told reporters. "One is to benefit from immediate capital flow, and the other is to help the whole group's development strategy."
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LATEST EVENTS PICC has not ruled out an initial public offering in the mainland and the SAR. It will also look into investing in AIA's listing in Hong Kong.
American International Group, parent of AIA, bought a 9.9 percent stake in PICC Property & Casualty as a strategic partner in 2003 when the non-life insurer listed in Hong Kong.
Institutional investors like PICC see fluctuations in the capital market as an investment opportunity.
"Capital is our advantage as an insurer, including premiums and assets generated from business expansion, as well as assets in foreign currencies after listing," Wu said.
The insurer aims to improve profitability after turning around in 2009. Net profit soared 34 times to 2.65 billion yuan ($389.7 million) in the first half of the year. Total assets of PICC Property & Casualty topped 180 billion yuan, while the life insurance portion of its parent reached over 160 billion yuan.
Insurer ups volume of aid (2010-08-23) China Union Life Insurance Co, together with the China Youth Development Foundation, launched 25 "Hope Libraries" across the country, with most of them located in poverty-stricken areas.
It is Union Life's latest effort to help poor students for five years in a row, but with the focus shifting from financially supporting students to improving school infrastructure. According to its plan, the company will provide at least 1,000 books to each library every year.
More than 75m Chinese have social security cards (2010-08-25) As of June this year, China has approved to 190 million cards in more than 140 regions with almost 75 million cardholders and in many regions has realized the goal of one card for each insured person, according to information learned at a national medical insurance and social security conference held recently in Beijing.
Yin Weimin, minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the quantity of nationally-issued social security cards will be up to 800 million by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan.
The social security card is the only integrated circuit card issued to the public by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. More than 10 years have passed since it was initially issued in 1999.
With the gradual establishment of various social security systems and progress of the Golden Social Security Project, the quantity of issued social security cards and cardholders present have rapidly increased.
Hu Xiaoyi, Vce Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said the issuance and application of
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LATEST EVENTS social security cards provides strong support for instantly settling medical expenses.
Hu said promoting instant settlement for medical expenses is also a breakthrough for the rapid issuance and standardized application of social security cards. It forms a good interactive pattern whereby application drives card issuance, while issuance in turn leads to standardizing procedures.
Life insurers to pay $2.19m after NE China plane crash (2010-08-25) China's insurance regulator said August 25 that Chinese life insurers were expected to pay claims of 14.87 million yuan ($2.19 million) involving those killed in an air crash in northeast China on August 24.
Twenty-seven of the 42 killed in the crash were covered by 14 insurance companies, including PICC Group and subsidiaries PICC Property and Casualty and PICC Life, as well as China Pacific Property, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in a statement on its website.
The aircraft had fuselage coverage and general single-limit insurance with PICC Property and Casualty, China Pacific Property and Ping An Property, and the Lindu Airport, where the accident occurred, had airport liability coverage, according to the statement.
It gave no figures for the estimated claims the insurers would have to pay for the aircraft and the airport.
Ninety-six people were aboard when the Brazilian-made Embraer E-190 crashed as it approached Lindu Airport in Yichun city, Heilongjiang province.
China to see a new wave of listings by insurers (2010-08-25) Chinese insurers, including New China Life, Taikang Life and Tianping Auto Insurance Co, are preparing a new wave of initial public offerings, the China Securities Journal reported on August 25.
The insurance companies need money to replenish their capital base, strengthen their repayment capability and plan for long-term growth, the official newspaper said.
New China Life, controlled by Central Huijin, aims to be eligible for an IPO within a year, while China Reinsurance Corp, also a unit of Huijin, is preparing for a dual-listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the report said.
The People's Insurance Co of China, which aims to double its profit in 2011 from 2009, is seeking a private placement of shares ahead of an IPO, the article said.
China has four listed insurers -- China Life, Ping An Insurance, China Pacific Insurance and PICC Property and Casualty Co.
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China Life falls most in 9 months as profit disappoints Citigroup, UBS (2010-08-26) China Life Insurance Co, the nation's biggest insurer, fell the most in nine months in Hong Kong trading after Citigroup Inc said first-half earnings were "weak" and cut the share-price estimate by 12 percent.
The shares slid 5 percent to HK$31.05 as of 2:48pm local time, the most since November 27. China Life's Shanghai-traded stock dropped 3.4 percent to 22.47 yuan. Net income climbed 7.4 percent to 18 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), the Beijing-based insurer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange August 25.
Citigroup analysts Darwin Lam and Zerlina Zeng said China Life's profit trailed their estimates by 8 percent as premium growth slowed in the six months to June 30. Chairman Yang Chao lifted income from premiums by 12 percent through efforts to curb single-premium sales in favor of more-profitable longer-duration products.
"China Life remains our least preferred play in the sector due to its lackluster life operating trends, lack of property and casualty exposure and less gearing to a potential A-share market recovery than peers," Lam and Zeng wrote in a note to clients August 26. They kept a "hold" rating and lowered the stock-price estimate to HK$36.20 from HK$41.
China Life's premium growth in the first half trailed smaller rival Ping An Insurance (Group) Co's 43 percent expansion and a 34 percent average for the life-insurance industry. The company's gross premiums dropped 0.2 percent in 2009 from a year earlier, according to the regulator's data, as it curbed sales of lower-margin single-premium policies to improve profitability.
Stock declines
Net realized gains on investments fell almost 50 percent as China's stock market tumbled, according to the earnings statement. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 27 percent in the first half of 2010 amid concerns that curbs on bank lending and a crackdown on real-estate speculation will strain economic growth.
China Life will "focus more on market timing and flexibility" with stocks for the rest of the year, and try to seize "short-term opportunities that may emerge" in a market that remains volatile, Vice President Liu Jiade told reporters in Beijing August 26. The Shanghai Composite is up 8.3 percent since July 1 as investors speculate that policies may be eased to counter a slowdown.
'Considerable' pressure
Bond holdings face "considerable pressures" in the second half as yields remain low and the insurer has to allocate a "significant" proportion of investments to debts to match liabilities, Liu added. Fixed-income securities accounted for 48.5 percent of the company's portfolio as of June 30, down 1.2 percentage points from the end of last year.
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Ping An this week reported a 29 percent gain in first-half profit as its non-life operations made money. PICC Property & Casualty Co, the nation's biggest non-life insurer, said August 17 that net income surged to the most since the first half of 2007 as underwriting operations contributed a 1.9 billion yuan profit, reversing a loss a year earlier.
China Life's result was disappointing because the value of new business trailed that of Ping An, according to Peter O'Brien, director of Asia-Pacific insurance research at Standard Chartered Plc. The company's new business value grew 11 percent year-on-year compared with 44 percent expansion at Ping An, O'Brien wrote in a note August 26.
Premiums growth
China Life's new business value will "grow further" in the second half because the company is shifting its focus back to underwriting margins, after putting an emphasis on "scale" in the first six months, Chief Actuary Shirley Shao told reporters in Hong Kong August 26.
The company's focus on selling regular-premium policies over single-premium ones resulted in "weak" total premium growth, UBS AG analysts, led by Kenneth Lo, wrote in a note August 26.
That weakness was largely due to slower growth in less profitable first-year single premiums, President Wan Feng said at August 26's briefing. A 24.2 percent expansion in first-year regular premiums in the six months to June 30 will "lay the basis" for next year's growth through renewals, he added.
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FOCUS ON AIA
AIG talking to big investors on AIA IPO (2010-08-12) American International Group (AIG) has started talks with potential investors to sell stakes in its Asian life insurance business, AIA, ahead of AIA's planned initial public offering, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told reporters.
Several financial investors, including Temasek Holdings, China Investment Corp and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have expressed interest in buying cornerstone stakes in AIA, they added.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that AIG may place as much as 30 percent of AIA with institutional investors and wealthy tycoons, rather than offer them minor stakes in an initial public offering.
AIG is aiming to list AIA on the Hong Kong stock exchange by the fourth quarter of this year and the IPO is expected to raise about $15 billion.
China consortium may bid for AIG's Asian insurance unit (2010-08-16) A consortium of leading Chinese companies, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd and China Life Insurance Co Ltd, plans to bid for a 30 percent stake in American International Group (AIG) Ltd's Asian life insurance business, AIA, the 21st Century Business Herald reported August 15.
That would mean an investment of about $10 billion based on AIA's estimated $30 billion value, which was what British insurer Prudential Plc last agreed to pay for AIA before its bid collapsed earlier this year.
Bailed out insurer AIG is planning to list American International Assurance (AIA) on the Hong Kong stock exchange later this year, sources have previously said.
AIG was set to name Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators for the initial public offering (IPO), sources said earlier.
AIG and its advisers were seeking pre-IPO investments from Chinese investors, sources told reporters, declining to name individual investors.
The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Pre-IPO stakes are usually sold at a discount to the IPO valuation and that sets a benchmark for the public offering. A large pre-IPO investment will make it easy for AIG and its advisers to sell the rest of the offer to traditional institutions and mutual funds.
During the negotiations, China Life called for a valuation of $25 billion to $27 billion for AIA, compared with the $35.5 billion that Prudential initially agreed to pay for AIA.
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FOCUS ON AIA The report also said that if the consortium failed to get the 30 percent stake it would not pursue an investment in AIA's IPO.
Large IPOs are commonly either supported by large pre-IPO investments or cornerstone investors, as was the case with Agricultural Bank of China Ltd's record IPO.
Other members of the consortium include Cinda Asset Management Fosun Group, Hony Capital (an investment arm of Legend Group, parent of Lenovo Group, and Alibaba.com Ltd).
An AIA spokesman could not be reached for comment. Banks and institutions mentioned in this report were either not available for comment or declined to comment.
China Cinda bids for AIA stake (2010-08-23) China Cinda Asset Management is leading a mainland Chinese consortium bidding for a stake in American International Group's Asian arm, AIA, a report said on August 23.
The State-run investment firm is in talks with the US insurance giant to buy into AIA either before its initial public offering in Hong Kong in October or during the IPO process as a strategic investor, the South China Morning Post said, citing unnamed bankers with knowledge of the talks.
The report did not say which other firms were in the consortium or how much of AIA it planned to buy. But it said that a major State-owned bank was believed to be involved, given the likely size of such a purchase.
Earlier this month, media reported that a consortium formed by the nation's largest life insurer, China Life Insurance, China Cinda, and private conglomerate Fosun Group, had temporarily dropped a bid for AIA on concerns that it could be priced too high.
At least four consortia made up of private Chinese investors have approached US insurance giant AIG about acquiring its Asian business, earlier report said.
AIA reportedly plans to list in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of this year and hopes to raise as much as $23 billion. Sovereign wealth funds from Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar have also expressed an interest in AIA.
More questions than answers for AIA deal (2010-08-25) Mainland and Hong Kong capital markets were bombarded with conflicting news about bids for American International Group (AIG)'s subsidiary AIA on August 17, a day after AIG executives held a critical meeting.
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FOCUS ON AIA Some claimed Chinese investors were withdrawing from a proposed AIA deal en masse. Other rumors spread that a deal had been inked.
The meeting was thought to be pivotal to the future of AIA, which AIG hopes to sell as part of an effort to raise funds and repay a massive debt to the US government. AIA, the US insurance giant's Asian life insurance unit, could fetch tens of billions of dollars.
But going into the meeting, AIG had yet to clearly state its strategy for AIA, wavering on issues such as timing, price and post-sale influence. As a result, the AIA sale had been repeatedly put on hold. In turn, an information vacuum encouraged rumors about potential buyouts and failed bids by Chinese investors.
One rumor floating around the markets August 17 was that China Life had withdrawn a bid for AIA. It seemed no one knew what to expect next.
"There is the possibility that the Chinese would enter as cornerstone investors, or perhaps an IPO would be launched directly without the need for a funds injection," said an executive for one of the potential bidders. "Or the listing plan could be abandoned and AIA sold in its entirety. Anything is possible."
AIG drew up a plan in July for a sale to strategic investors in conjunction with an initial public offering for AIA on the Hong Kong exchange. It hoped an IPO would get a boost from a pre-IPO sale of a stake and resolve US political issues.
The idea of a private placement attracted Chinese investors including consortiums led by Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun Group; Shan Weijian, group chairman of Pacific Alliance Group; and Fred Hu, former chairman of the Greater China office at Goldman Sachs. Each investor group bid for a 30 percent stake in AIA.
At one point the consortium led by Guo temporarily backed out, but all three later launched due diligence. Still, AIG has appeared to hesitate.
"From what we know, AIG is unable to decide, given that all three proposals have their uncertainties," an executive at a foreign investment bank said. "The funding source was of particular concern. If they are not backed by funds, it does not matter how high the bids are."
Ups and downs
A source close to the bidding consortiums said that, since AIG had earlier this year rejected a $ 30.4 billion offer from Britain's Prudential insurance group, a new offer that involved a cornerstone investor would have to exceed that amount.
But such a high price could be hard for many investors to swallow. And any transaction of such size concerns a variety of existing and new shareholders, managers and regulators, pointing to the high degree of uncertainty that can be expected.
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FOCUS ON AIA Moreover, an AIA deal would involve a huge number of variables, including uncertain funding sources, structures of the bidding consortiums, acquisition plans, strategic intentions, as well as the seller's price demands and time limits.
"A transaction of such magnitude will have to be reported to the State Council regardless of the eventual winner," said a source close to the deal-making. "The State Council will only make its stand after it has seen the final proposal."
AIG appears to be interested in flexibility and keeping its options open. It's felt pressure to repay its global financial crisis-related government bailout, while at the same time weathering setbacks in the plan to sell AIA.
According to AIG's latest timetable, strategic investors would ink a pre-IPO agreement September 2. These could include global investors with a history of dealing with AIG. AIA would then submit documents for a stock market listing by the end of the month.
Given the time constraints, the weight of AIG's responsibilities and its refusal to compromise on price, the negotiations have become extremely complicated in recent weeks.
"There is also the possibility that AIG is hoping to garner support from investors from around the world for an IPO," an investment banker told reporters.
If strategic investors make pre-IPO investments "it would lighten the pressure on an IPO." But if a deal cannot be reached, he said, "the market would be warmed up, thereby allowing a direct listing."
Yet the source close to the consortiums said AIG, having failed repeatedly to sell AIA in the past, might find it difficult to win over secondary market investors if institutional investors fail to reach a consensus on the value of AIA.
And if AIG insists on a high price, it could fail in the private placement and public listing. Moreover, AIA might be bought by institutional investors.
Bidder scuffle
Circumstances surrounding the Chinese consortiums are similarly complicated. Funding sources are murky, as is the makeup of each consortium, adding to the variability tied to bidding for AIA.
One investment industry veteran said those in the forefront of the bidding for AIA are behaving like investment banks, playing the roles of intermediaries between project and funds. Thus, a gap between true sellers and buyers remains.
Consortium funding could come from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Singapore as well as financial institutions in China such as Cinda Asset Management Corp, China Life, Ping An Insurance, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
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Other potential participants could include China's Social Security Fund, government policy bank China Development Bank (CDB), and the foreign reserves watchdog the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China (SAFE).
In addition, Hu recently started a private equity fund and has been tight-lipped about its investors' identities. While working at Goldman Sachs, he was in charge of projects including those for Ping An and ICBC, which means these institutions may be secretly supporting his bid.
Another rumor said Hu had asked the SAFE and social security officials for financial support for an AIA purchase.
Elsewhere, Fosun's Guo has been in contact with AIA for some time and has sought to join forces with Cinda. He also sought financing from CDB for a bid and convinced business leaders Liu Chuanzhi and Ma Yun to join his consortium.
Cinda and China Life may be the Chinese investors perceived as most acceptable by all sides. Cinda was established in 1999 to dispose of the non-performing assets of state-owned banks, but later it sought a new model for assets management following the restructuring of banks.
The State Council recently approved revamping Cinda and gave consent to plans to introduce strategic investors and launch an IPO. China Life's interest in AIA is also well-known in the industry, but according to recent rumors it pulled out of a consortium.
China Life not keen on AIA stake buy (2010-08-27) China Life Insurance Co on August 26 reiterated that it has no plans to buy a stake in American International Assurance (AIA), a subsidiary of American International Group (AIG).
"We will decide on whether to subscribe to AIA's pending initial public offering (IPO) or not after the issue is priced," said China Life Chairman Yang Chao.
Yang said he has not been in talks with the top management of AIG. "I haven't contacted the top management of AIG about any potential strategic investment after we decided not to bid for AIA in March 2009," he said.
AIG is expected to decide by next week whether it wants to start formal negotiations with strategic investors for AIA's pre-IPO sale, western media reported on August 25, citing unnamed sources familiar with the process.
"According to my knowledge AIG has been trying its best to push forward AIA's IPO," Yang said. "But it will be quite difficult for AIA to decide on pricing and other matters before the initial public offering due to the Hong Kong regulatory rules."
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FOCUS ON AIA
AIA plans to list its shares in Hong Kong during the fourth quarter and expects to raise nearly $23 billion.
Yang, however, did not rule out the possibility of being a strategic investor in AIA. "Our investment in AIA will depend on market conditions, and we will prudently study the situation and wait for the IPO pricing," Yang said.
At the same time the company plans to pursue new investment channels like infrastructure and real estate sector.
China Life will spend 100 billion yuan to set up retirement homes in Langfang, Hebei province. It will start the project with an initial investment of around 10 billion yuan. The company purchased a land parcel in Hangzhou for around 2.6 billion yuan earlier this month.
According to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, insurers are allowed to invest up to 10 percent of their assets in real estate, but are forbidden from investing in the commercial residential sector and getting involved in property development.
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Ping An Property Insurance OKed to double capital (2010-08-09) Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd has received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to boost its registered capital from 6 billion yuan ($885.87 million) to 12 billion yuan to fuel its business development and improve solvency capacity. As of the end of June this year, the company has seen its premium income grow by 61.1 percent, to 29.98 billion yuan.
Pricing row gives SDB, Ping An merger jitters (2010-08-13) Since China Ping An Insurance Group Co acquired a controlling stake in Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB) earlier this year, plans for the bank merger have been up in the air.
The basic strategy is to integrate SDB and Ping An Insurance's banking unit Ping An Bank. But the steps toward execution have been slow, generally due to the complexity of the deal and perhaps most importantly because various stakeholders have been squabbling over price.
Ping An and SDB announced in August that they would continue a trade suspension for their stocks on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges until further notification. Trading was originally put on hold June 30 due to the pending asset restructuring connected to the bank merger.
Investors are getting anxious. "The pressure to resume trading is immense," said a source close to the transaction. "Both companies had hoped to resume trading at the end of July by first announcing a framework agreement" for the bank tie-up, the source said. "But it did not materialize."
"The main point of contention," another source said, "has been the share price of Ping An Bank. Parties involved have been unable to reach consensus."
Sources cite several disagreements over share pricing pitting financial advisers for the banks and other stakeholders. Minority shareholders are driving a particularly hard bargain.
Crossing swords
The basic plan calls for a merger by absorption. SDB would launch a private placement via Ping An Insurance, which in turn would inject Ping An Bank's assets into SDB.
It's certainly not a merger of equals. At the end of 2009, SDB reported 587 billion yuan in assets and an annual profit of 5 billion yuan. That dwarfs Ping An Bank, which posted 220 billion yuan in assets and 1.1 billion yuan in earnings.
SDB operates 20 branches and 302 outlets in 19 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Ping An Bank has eight branches with outlets mainly in the southeast, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Fuzhou.
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FOCUS ON PING AN Sources close to the deal-making told Caixin the insurance company's financial adviser China International Capital Corp valued the swap at 0.19-0.23 SDB shares per Ping An Bank share. SDB's adviser CITIC Securities pegged it at 0.18-0.22 per SDB share for each Ping An Bank share.
Some of SDB's independent board members claim these advisers overvalued Ping An Bank stock. They include economist Andy Xie and an unnamed foreign party, who together asked for a third-party valuation by Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse set a value of 0.13-0.18 per SDB share for every share of Ping An Bank.
Sources said Xie is in a group that thinks SDB has a significant advantage in terms of branding and profitability, so it should command a higher premium than the banks' advisers recommended. After all, some sources reasoned, once Ping An Bank vanishes as an entity "there will be nothing left."
On the other hand, the CITIC Securities report said Ping An Bank's outlets, personnel and clientele "cannot be that cheap."
Sources said the Xie camp has negotiated with Ping An Insurance based on Credit Suisse's valuation and may set a final price of 0.19 per SDB share for every Ping An Bank share.
The deal would include a private placement of 1.47 billion shares for Ping An Insurance, which currently has a 90 percent stake in the bank. Minority shareholders of a 10 percent stake may choose cash or swap shares.
Sources familiar with the private placement plan said Ping An Insurance is more interested in SDB's national branding and outlets than its stock investor potential. The insurer's chairman and CEO Ma Mingzhe's greatest interest lies in completing the bank integration, the source said.
"It is unlikely that the price is of great concern to him," the source said. "And the proportion of the share-swap is not a big issue."
Minority Jam
Ping An Insurance is not only the largest shareholder of Ping An Bank but in SDB as well, with a 30 percent stake. As such, the insurer hopes to prevent any voting on the deal by the boards of either bank or at a general meeting of shareholders.
Yet a source close to SDB said that "in reality, the power of decision lies in the hands of minority shareholders of SDB and Ping An Bank," adding that a share-swap value would ultimately be determined by the "bargaining power of the minority shareholders of both parties."
Among the stakeholders who share a 70 percent stake in SDB are powerful institutions. To ensure a smooth merger, a source said, Ping An Insurance is trying to win them over, even though this might "incur the displeasure of Ping An Bank's minority shareholders."
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FOCUS ON PING AN
Ping An Bank's minority shareholders have rejected all valuations so far. Some called for a 2-for-1 swap, equal to 0.5 per SDB share for every share of Ping An Bank, although many may be ready to accept a 3-for-1 exchange.
Meanwhile, Ping An Bank employees who together hold about a 2.87 percent stake in the bank have banded together and hired a lawyer to fight for a higher price.
Meanwhile, some SDB minority shareholders point to Ping An Bank's low profits as proof that it's been overvalued.
The bank's return on equity was 7.69 percent last year compared to SDB's average ROE of 26.59 percent. Even accounting for SDB's lower capital adequacy ratio, compared with Ping An Bank's ratio of as much as 13.05 percent, the latter's profitability is still low.
Jobs, executives and branch issues are also being debated as the merger approaches. Both banks are headquartered in Shenzhen, which means consolidation is likely for their local branches, offices, credit card centers and headquarters.
SDB's management is concerned about the strong control that they expect Ping An Insurance to wield in the future. For starters, high-level personnel issues have become sensitive.
The front office has already seen a lot of change. On May 26, for example, Xiao Suining was named to replace Frank N. Newman as SDB chairman, and Richard Jackson left his job as president of Ping An Bank to take over Xiao's job as president of SDB.
In addition, many Ping An Bank executives have joined SDB's board of directors.
Meanwhile, Ping An has tried to allay SDB employee fears of downsizing by promising no pay cuts, demotions or layoffs for three years after the integration. But SDB's senior executives have since been asked to prepare for adjustments.
Some senior executives at SDB describe themselves as locusts in late autumn whose days are numbered. Some have resigned.
Morale is also apparently shaky at Ping An Bank, where Lei Zhiwei resigned as vice president in February. Rumor has it that another vice president will depart soon.
Ping An tops CEIBS List of China's private sector companies (2010-08-20) Ping An Insurance topped a list of China's top 100 private-sector companies for 2009 released August 20 by China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
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FOCUS ON PING AN The report aims to give a glimpse into the performance of non-state-owned companies after the financial crisis and the increasing involvement of private companies in international capital markets.
Private companies performed slightly better in 2009 than their non-private counterparts in terms of growth rate and profitability, according to the report. Total revenue of private-sector listed companies in 2009 was 214.35 trillion yuan ($31.5 trillion), while average revenue per company was 2.3 billion yuan. Compared to 2008, average revenue increased 13.1 percent in 2009. By contrast, average revenue rose at a faster 36.1 percent clip in 2008 versus 2007.
Discovery to take stake in Ping An Health (2010-08-24) South Africa's largest health insurer, Discovery Holdings, plans to pay about 200 million yuan ($29 million) for a 20 percent stake in a joint venture (JV) with Ping An Insurance.
Health insurance coverage is very low in China, which has been stepping up efforts to expand its social safety net. Premiums are expected to exceed 120 billion yuan in 2015.
Discovery estimates that 55 percent of health care spending in China is private spending, and only 7 percent of that is insured, creating an attractive opportunity for health insurers to expand, said Adrian Gore, Discovery's chief executive.
"There's a massive kind of gap that needs to be covered over time," Gore said. "When you put all these factors together it is a very, very large emerging market, and for us that makes it very appealing."
Discovery had initially said it would take a 25 percent stake in the insurance joint venture but had to cut its target to 20 percent because of Chinese regulatory limits. The deal still requires regulatory approval.
The joint venture will launch a Discovery product in China next year. The South African insurer would also send executives to China to manage product development and risk control, said Ping An Health chairman Lu Min, adding that Discovery's "Vitality" product would be adapted to the Chinese market.
Premiums at Ping An Health expanded at an annual rate of 490 percent over the past three years on the back of China's growing public and private spending on medical insurance, said Ren Huichuan, chairman and CEO of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Co of China Ltd.
Ping An founded its health business in 2005 with a registered capital of about 500 million yuan.
Ping An Insurance H1 net profit rises 27.9% (2010-08-25) Ping An Insurance, China's second largest insurer listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, said August 24 that its net profit rose 27.9 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2010.
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FOCUS ON PING AN Ping An's net profit hit 9.87 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in the first half, and its first-half-year revenue reached 93.8 billion yuan, up 28 percent from a year earlier, Ping An Chairman Ma Mingzhe said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Ping An's earnings per share stood at 1.3 yuan, up 27.5 percent year-on-year, said the company, which was based in South China's boomtown Shenzhen.
Strong growth in the first half was partly attributable to the sharp increase in written premiums of the insurance business, and partly due to the strong growth in profit generated by banking, securities and trust businesses, said Ping An.
On insurance business, Ping An said net profit in the first half rose 10 percent year-on-year to 7.64 billion yuan, from 6.94 billion yuan of the first half of 2009.
According to the statement, Ping An's first-year written premiums from individual life insurance business soared 52.1 percent year-on-year, and its premium income from property and casualty insurance business jumped 61.1 percent from a year earlier.
On banking operations, Ping An said its strategic investment in Shenzhen Development Bank made breakthrough progress and Ping An Bank delivered strong results and robust business growth in the first half.
Net profit from the banking division amounted to 1.10 billion yuan in the first half, a 91-percent surge from 577 million yuan a year earlier, it said.
Ping An said it held controlling 29.99 percent of shares of Shenzhen Development Bank, which had already started to contribute profit to Ping An since May.
"Our investment in the banking business achieved substantive results as we made steady progress in our strategic investment in Shenzhen Development Bank," said Ma.
While Ping An Bank achieved good performance, realizing a net profit of 900 million yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 56 percent. The bank's non-performing loan ratio was controlled at an industry leading level of 0.45 percent and capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.8 percent, according to the statement.
In future, Ping An said it would pursue on the restructuring and integration of Shenzhen Development Bank and Ping An Bank, aiming at a "win-win" situation for different parties.
Ping An said in June it was mulling over merging Ping An Bank and Shenzhen Development Bank as part of its long-term ambition to become "a leading international integrated financial services provider" with equal strength in banking, asset management and insurance.
Regarding securities business, Ping An said its net income of its brokerage unit more than doubled to
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FOCUS ON PING AN 828 million yuan from 367 million yuan for the same period of 2009.
Strong results from its insurance, securities and banking businesses more than offset Ping An's weak performance in equity investments.
The company said as total investment income declined by 25.6 percent to 10,365 million yuan in the first half of this year, total investment yield fell to 3.7 percent from 4.8 percent, which was mainly due to the significant reduction in net realized and unrealized gains as a result of the depressed and volatile domestic stock market.
As the equity market remained volatile, Ping An shifted more funds to fixed maturity investments. As at June 30, the percentage of fixed-income products increased to 79.3 percent of total investments from 76 percent as at the end of last year, while the equity investments decreased from 10.8 percent to 8.1 percent.
According to the statement, Ping An again made Fortune's Global 500 list this year and was ranked top among the non-State owned enterprises in China's mainland. It occupied the 383rd position in the overall list.
In the first half, Ma said the world's financial markets were preoccupied with fears on Europe's sovereign debt crisis and concerns of a setback in the global economic recovery, while the Chinese economy continued its robust and steady growth.
Challenges remained, however, said Ma. In the second half this year, the Chinese economy would be facing challenges caused by the fade out of stimulus monetary policies and economic structural adjustments.
"As market expectations on the timing and magnitude of interest rates increase ease, it is possible that the bond yields will remain at a relatively low level. Together with the volatile stock market, all these will put pressure on our second half year results," he said.
Ma said Ping An would accelerate development of banking and investment businesses and take measures to reinforce foundations of the integrated platform of financial services and to fully support enhanced cross-selling in the second half this year.
China Ping An posts 3.7% ROI (2010-08-25) China's second largest insurer China Ping An Insurance Group reported 10.3 billion yuan ($1.51 billion) in return on investment (ROI), representing a 3.7 percent ROI, according to the company's first half report released on August 24. In the first half of 2009, ROI was 4.8 percent.
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FOCUS ON PING AN
Ping An to diversify investment channels (2010-08-26) Ping An Insurance (Group) Co will seek investment opportunities in commercial property, debt and shares of non-listed companies as it plans to diversify its investment, a senior executive said August 25.
The second-biggest insurer in China is seeking stable returns as China opened investment channels for insurers, Louis Cheung, executive director and president of Shenzhen-based Ping An, said August 25 in Hong Kong.
Insurers can invest an extra 400 billion yuan (US$59 billion) in the stock market from next month under new rules.
The rules, posted earlier this month, allow insurers to invest up to 10 percent of their capital in the real estate market, such as real estate investment trusts. The cap is bigger than market expectations. Insurers, however, are banned from developing properties directly.
China had long planned to broaden investment options for insurers, who were previously only allowed to invest mainly in low-return bonds, bank deposits and currency products.
The insurer views positively prospects in China's equities market in the mid or long term, said Timothy Chan, deputy chief investment officer of Ping An.
Its net investment returns surged an annual 44.3 percent to 12.6 billion yuan in the first half of this year. Its net investment return ratio rose to 4.1 percent from 3.7 percent.
Ping An may get 1.64b Shenzhen Bank shares (2010-08-26) Ping An Bank, the banking unit of Ping An Insurance Co of China, will be merged into Shenzhen Development Bank Co, at 1.8 times its book value, media reported on August 25, citing an unnamed banking source.
In return, Shenzhen Development Bank will issue 1.64 billion shares to Ping An Insurance Co of China, which will own about 51 percent of the combined entity after the merger.
Zhang Zixin, General Manager of Ping An Insurance, refused to comment on the report but said the insurer was still in talks with the nation's watchdog for the merger deal.
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NEW PRODUCTS
Allianz China Life targets bank wealth management clients (2010-08-04) Allianz China Life Insurance Co Ltd has recently introduced two new insurance products for banks’ wealth management clients, one for healthcare and one for children’s education.
Currently, insurance products sold in banks’ wealth management centers are for savings and investment.
Allianz China Life has established cooperation with more than 20 banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered.
China Pacific Life plans long-term financing plan (2010-08-12) China Pacific Life Insurance Co Ltd introduced a wealth management insurance product this month, which includes participating insurance as the main policy and critical disease insurance as a rider.
Policyholders can collect an amount of money equal to nine percent of the main policy’s basic insurance amount every year, starting the day the policy takes effect. At the age of 70, an extra amount of money will be given out as gift money.
The critical disease rider features a premium waiver and double payment. If the insured is inflicted with a major disease, the unpaid premium will be exempted and he or she can collect twice the amount of cash every year, which is 18 percent of the basic insurance amount.
Cathay Life’s new medical insurance features premium return (2010-08-13) Cathay Life Insurance Co recently introduced insurance which covers medical care and operation costs and features the return of the premium, the first insurer in China to introduce such a policy.
A staff member of Cathay Life said that the product provides protection until the insured is 88 years old. If there is no claim filed during the insurance period, an amount of 1.1 times the premium will be given back.
The policy covers many items for covered operations. If they meet the terms listed in the policy, Cathay Life will pay out 1.5 times to 80 times of the insured amount.
Great Wall Life insures family happiness (2010-08-18) Great Wall Life Insurance Co Ltd has launched a comprehensive family insurance plan which includes three kinds of portfolios targeting different family members and covers areas such as retirement, critical diseases and children’s education.
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NEW PRODUCTS
The comprehensive plan features endowment insurance as the main policy and offers several riders. Different combinations can form portfolios targeting different insured persons, one for the couple, one for the grown-ups in the family and one for the children.
Another feature is that its two critical disease riders cover as many as 50 kinds of diseases, one of the most comprehensive in the domestic life insurance market.
In order to deal with inflation, the plan’s main policy, a participating insurance product, promises to give customers no less than 70 percent of the distributable profit as dividends every year and when the plan expires, no less than 70 percent of the undistributed profit will be given to the policyholders as a final bonus.
Ping An Life, Bank of Communications to introduce high-end product (2010-08-20) Ping An Life Insurance, the life insurance arm of Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China, has joined hands with Bank of Communications to launch an annuity insurance with dividends for the latter’s high-end customers.
The product is sold exclusively to clients of the bank’s OTO Fortune, a wealth management program designed by Bank of Communications for high-end customers. This is the first product of its kind in China.
Heng An Standard Life launches critical disease insurance (2010-08-21) Heng An Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd has introduced critical disease insurance which features a whole life insurance (participating) as the main insurance and critical insurance as a rider.
The rider adds 13 kinds of diseases to the required 25 kinds by the industry regulation, bringing the total number of diseases it covers to 38.
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ECONOMY
China's July PMI for non-manufacturing sector rises to 60.1% (2010-08-03) The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China's non-manufacturing sector rose to 60.1 percent in July, up 2.7 percentage points from the previous month, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said August 3.
The non-manufacturing PMI includes a package of indices to measure the non-manufacturing sector's performance. A reading above 50 percent indicates economic expansion, while one below 50 percent indicates contraction.
The July rise in the index came after two successive monthly drops and was the fifth straight month the reading was above 50 percent.
The new orders index jumped to 55.8 percent in July, 2.9 percentage points higher than June, the CFLP said, reflecting robust demand in retail and catering services.
"The index for the real estate industry swung back to a level above 50 percent," said Cai Jin, deputy chairman of the CFLP.
Jin also urged the government to adhere to its policy of striking a balance between stable and relatively fast economic growth and the adjustment of the economic structure and the management of inflation expectations.
China's economic growth to slow to 9.2% in Q3 (2010-08-05) China's economic growth would continue to cool in the third quarter as the government reduces stimulus measures, thus lowering inflation expectations, a government think tank said on August 4.
The gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 9.2 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year, the State Information Center said in its economic review quarterly.
Annual inflation would grow at around three percent, it said.
The world's third largest economy expanded at 10.3-percent year-on-year in the second quarter, slower than the 11.9-percent growth in the first quarter and the 10.7-percent growth in the last quarter of 2009.
The moderate growth was welcomed by economists, as they said the rate was more sustainable and would help accelerate economic restructuring and prevent overheating.
The report noted consumer spending would remain robust in the third quarter boosted by wage increases and government subsidies on home appliance purchases.
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ECONOMY However, slower housing sales following the government's tightening of the real estate industry would hold back consumer spending to a certain extent, it said.
The cooling property market also made investors less anxious about inflation, the report said. In addition, the upping of banks' deposit reserve ration and tighter lending rules had served to drain liquidity and stem inflation.
The report noted consumer prices would increase at moderate pace in the latter half of the year, but unstable food prices due to the extreme weather and labor shortages in some regions would add uncertainty.
China's 2010 annual economic growth target is set at around 8 percent.
High trade surplus 'likely to remain' (2010-08-11) The country's high trade surplus will likely remain for the rest of the year as domestic demand continues to shrink from government attempts to curb the property bubble, Chinese analysts have said.
Exports in July shot up 38.1 percent from the same period last year, bringing trade surplus to a 18-month high of $28.7 billion and beating common forecasts, figures from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday. But imports grew only 22.7 percent year-on-year, at a much slower pace than expected.
In July, exports grew to $145.5 billion and imports increased to $116.8 billion.
The higher trade surplus "was mainly driven by the larger-than-expected slowdown in imports", said Nomura Global Economics in a note on August 10.
Growth in imports fell to 22.7 percent, from 34.1 percent in June, although China's imports from the United States and European Union reached the highest since February, rising by 33 percent for US imports and 34 percent for EU imports year-on-year, Customs figures showed.
Despite the strong growth of imports in auto, grain, mechanical and electrical products, imports of industrial goods, including crude oil, iron ore, copper and finished steel products, all fell.
These reflected "weakening commodity prices, shutdown of inefficient and heavily polluting producers, and flooding which caused weak manufacturing activity", Nomura said.
As government policies on curbing real estate speculation continue and commodity prices are expected to stay low, the country's imports of "most industrial materials" will continue to shrink, said Yan Jinny, an economist from Standard Chartered Shanghai. Trade surplus will stand at above $20 billion in the coming months, she said.
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ECONOMY Li Jian, a senior researcher of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, agreed. "In the rest of the year, the trade surplus is very likely to range from $20 billion to $25 billion," Li said.
"China's export growth has stayed surprisingly resilient, as the European debt woes are yet to exert negative impact on the demand for the nation's goods. We will have to wait to see the real impact until September when Christmas orders are made," Yan said.
For the rest of the year, slowdown in export growth will continue but it will be moderate, as China's exporters are shifting more focus onto Asian and emerging markets from the US and EU, Yan said.
Exports to South Korea and Singapore accelerated to 40.3 percent and 11.2 percent in July, from 37.4 percent and 8.4 percent in June, Customs figures showed.
Analysts said China must also be prepared for a fresh round of international pressure led by the US to raise the value of the yuan, as the US and EU will possibly "launch more trade remedy cases against China" in the second half of the year.
A number of analysts worry that the large surplus will give developed nations such as the US a good excuse to further pressurize China on its trade policies.
"Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against China, especially from the US, will grow in the second half," said He Weiwen, deputy director of the China Institute for Open Economy of the University of International Business and Economics.
Over the weekend, the US said in its preliminary ruling that it will impose anti-dumping duties as high as 429 percent on imports of drill pipe used for oil wells from China.
Yan from Standard Chartered said "a sizable trade surplus means that the Chinese government has less justification to interrupt the appreciation of its currency".
A number of trade experts have called on the Chinese government to launch more policies to stimulate imports, especially high-tech and valued-added products, to balance the foreign trade and to fend off the criticisms.
Last weekend, the Ministry of Finance, together with four other ministries, released a policy on remitting import value-added tax and import tax on selected high-tech products, which analysts said is a sign that China is taking imports seriously.
China's July CPI rises to 3.3% (2010-08-11) China's consumer price index (CPI), one of the main gauges of inflation, rose in July to its highest level since October 2008, boosted by rising food prices after widespread floods.
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ECONOMY
The CPI was up 3.3 percent in July from a year earlier, 0.4 percentage points higher than the rise in June, Sheng Laiyun, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said August 11.
It has exceeded the 3-percent full-year target ceiling the government set in March. The index rose 0.4 percent in July from June.
Food prices, which account for about a third of the weighting in calculating the CPI, climbed 6.8 percent in July, compared with June's increase of 5.7 percent.
Because of severe floods, vegetable prices surged 22.3 percent in July from a year earlier, grain prices were up 11.8 percent while poultry product prices rose 4.1 percent, Sheng said.
However, economists said the acceleration in CPI growth was a temporary result of the floods, which would gradually abate.
CPI growth would remain around 3.3 percent in August or September, but could fall back below 3 percent at the year end, Lu Ting, China economist of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, said in an e-mailed note.
"The global surge in wheat and barley prices should have limited impact on China as only 1 percent of China's wheat consumption is imported and China has a big reserve for 6-month of consumption," Lu said in the note.
The high growth of CPI in July was also a result of a lower comparison base last year, said Liu Yuanchun, deputy dean of the school of economics under the People's University of China. The CPI fell 1.8 percent year on year in July of last year.
The country's CPI gained 2.7 percent year on year in the first seven months of this year, 0.1 percentage points higher than the January-June figure, the NBS said.
Consumer prices for the full year would maintain a stable level based on a moderation in economic growth, government efforts to avoid possible inflation and growth slowdown of the producer price index (PPI), Sheng said.
China's June PPI up 6.4% on year (2010-08-11) China's Producer Price Index (PPI) grew 6.4 percent year on year in June, China's National Bureau of Statistics announced August 11. The figure for the first six months was 6.0 percent up from a year ago, according to the bureau.
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ECONOMY
China's July new lending drops to 532.8b yuan (2010-08-11) New yuan-denominated lending in July fell to 532.8 billion ($78.6 billion) from 603.4 billion yuan in June, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said in a statement August 11.
The July figure brought new loans for the first seven months to more than 5.16 trillion yuan, compared with 7.73 trillion yuan during the same period last year.
The decline followed the central bank's controls over lending to local financial vehicles, the property sector and industries with overcapacity.
Total outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 45.14 trillion yuan at the end of July, up 18.4 percent year on year, said the statement on the PBOC website.
China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 17.6 percent year on year to 67.41 trillion yuan by the end of July. It marked a slowdown from the 18.5 percent increase at the end of June, according to the statement.
Narrow money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits, climbed 22.9 percent from a year earlier to 24.07 trillion yuan, representing a decrease of 1.7 percentage points from the end of June.
Chinese government fixed this year's target for new loans at 7.5 trillion yuan, after the record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans in 2009 fueled fears of asset bubbles.
Loans data for July was still within normal territory despite a drop from June, said Chen Xingdong, chief economist with BNP Paribas Asia Ltd.
Combined new loans in the first half accounted for 61 percent of the year's target, leaving 39 percent for the second half, which meant a looser environment for lending compared with the same period last year, he said.
Chinese banks extended about 2.22 trillion yuan of new loans in the second half of last year, compared with about 2.87 trillion yuan of new loans accessible in the second half of this year.
The central bank said August 5 that it would maintain its moderately loose monetary policy and enhance financial supports to boost the economy's sustainable development, while, at the same time, making the policy more specific and flexible.
"The policy stance in the coming months could be best summarized: 'loose fiscal, tight monetary'," Lu Ting, China economist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in a client e-mail note.
China would ramp up government spending on public housing and other public works, but it would stick
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ECONOMY to its loan target, its structural reforms and its property tightening measures this year, Lu added.
China's July retail sales up 17.9% (2010-08-11) China's retail sales, the main gauge of consumer spending, rose 17.9 percent year on year in July to 1.22 trillion yuan ($180.8 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced August 11.
The retail sales growth rate in July was down by 0.4 percentage points from that of June, figures from the NBS show.
The July figure brought total retail sales in the first seven months to 8.49 trillion yuan, up 18.2 percent over the same period last year.
Urban consumption hit 1.06 trillion yuan in July, up 18.2 percent, while rural residents spent 159.8 billion yuan, up 16.1 percent.
The catering sector reported 141.4 billion yuan of revenues in July, up 18.2 percent year on year; while the retail goods trade was valued at 1.08 trillion yuan, up 17.9 percent.
China's industrial output up 13.4% in July (2010-08-11) The growth of China's industrial value-added output was up 13.4 percent in July year-on-year, 0.3 percentage points down from June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on August 11.
Industrial value-added output, the key measure of manufacturing production, posted a 17-percent year-on-year growth in the first seven months, down 0.6 percentage points from the first-half figure, said Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman with the NBS.
Industrial value-added output for heavy industries from January to July climbed 13.3 percent from one year earlier, and that for light industries was up 13.5 percent, said Sheng.
All 39 industries saw year-on-year growth in July, with textiles up 11.1 percent; chemical materials and products up 13.7 percent; general equipment manufacturing up 21 percent, and transportation equipment manufacturing up 15.9 percent, said Sheng.
The output of 413 industrial products increased year on year in July, with crude oil production up 6.4 percent; power output up 11.5 percent; and crude steel production up 2.2 percent, said Sheng.
The growth rate of China's industrial value-added production has declined for five consecutive months since it hit 20.7 percent in the first two months.
Boosted by the government's economic stimulus measures, industrial value-added output has seen a
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ECONOMY double-digit monthly growth since June 2009.
China fixed-asset investment up 24.9% in first seven months (2010-08-11) ina's fixed asset investment in the first seven months rose 24.9 percent year-on-year to 11.98 trillion yuan ($1.77 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced August 11.
The growth rate was 0.6 percentage points lower than that for the first half. State-owned and state-controlled investment rose by 20.1 percent to 4.95 trillion yuan. Property market investment grew 37.2 percent to 2.38 trillion yuan in the first seven months.
Investment in central government projects rose 10.4 percent to 924.2 billion yuan, and investment in local government projects was up 26.3 percent to 11.06 trillion yuan in the first seven months year on year.
Foreign investment climbed 0.9 percent to 418.3 billion yuan in the first seven months year on year. Investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan was up 15.8 percent to 381.3 billion yuan. Domestic enterprise investment rose 26.6 percent to 11.14 trillion yuan.
Total investment in the primary sector (including farming, fishing and forestry) rose 18.9 percent from a year earlier.
The industrial sector saw investment up 22.1 percent, and investment in the tertiary sector, which covers commerce, finance and services, rose 27.4 percent.
Investment in railways increased by 21.5 percent to 290.5 billion yuan; that in oil and natural gas by 7.9 percent to 128.7 billion yuan; and that in electricity and thermal power production and supply by 6.9 percent to 577.1 billion yuan.
China Q2 consumer confidence index rises: Nielsen survey (2010-08-12) A Chinese consumer confidence index rose in the second quarter.
The measure increased to 109 from 108 in the previous three months, according to a statement released by Nielsen Co and the Chinese statistics bureau's Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center in Beijing on August 12. The survey is of 3,500 people.
Confidence continued to strengthen in rural areas as government measures boosted investment and farmers' incomes, according to the statement. Urban dwellers' confidence and willingness to spend weakened as consumers expected higher prices, especially for food, it said.
"Increasing consumer prices and also stock market volatility are two of a number of factors that appear to be affecting consumers' attitudes in this latest quarter," Mitch Barns, Nielsen's Greater China president,
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ECONOMY said in the statement.
China's FDI up nearly 30% in July (2010-08-17) The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed into China in July rose 29.2 percent year on year to $6.924 billion, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman said on August 17.
The figure brought FDI inflow to China in the first seven months of the year to $58.35 billion, an increase of 20.65 percent from a year earlier, the spokesman Yao Jian said.
Yao said on a month-on-month basis, FDI inflow had increased by more than 20 percent for two straight months, reflecting the solid recovery of FDI flows into China.
The manufacturing sector received 47.94 percent of the July FDI inflow and the services industry got 45.09 percent.
A total of 14,459 foreign-invested companies were approved for establishment in China during the first seven months of the year, up 17.9 percent year on year.
On the other hand, during the first seven months of the year, Chinese entities invested $26.75 billion in overseas markets, excluding financial investment, bringing total outbound investment by the end of July to $226.5 billion, the MOC data showed without giving year-on-year comparisons.
China's Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the United States and Brazil were the main overseas destinations of Chinese FDI.
Some 22.8 percent of FDI outflows, or $ 6.1 billion, were for the acquisition of overseas companies.
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FROM THE WATCHDOG
Shenzhen to conduct auto insurance trial in Oct (2010-08-03) Shenzhen municipal government plans to introduce a trial automobile insurance scheme in October, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission approval pending, the 21st Century Business Herald reported August 3.
During the trial, insurers will have greater autonomy in developing new auto insurance products and setting premium charges, while PICC Property & Casualty, Ping An Insurance (Group) and China Pacific Insurance (Group) will also continue to offer auto coverage under the existing system of floating discount rates for different customers, the report said.
New rule gives insurers more investment options (2010-08-06)
An extra 400 billion yuan ($59 billion) can be freed to invest in the stock market from August 31 on a new rule that stimulated investment sentiment on August 6.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index grew 1.44 percent to 2,658 on August 6. The financial sector gained 3.09 percent.
Under a new rule from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission effective from August 31, insurers can invest up to 20 percent of their assets in stocks and funds in the equities market.
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FROM THE WATCHDOG Previously, insurers can invest at most 20 percent of their assets in stocks and funds, including funds betting on currency, stocks and bonds.
"The new rule posted on August 5 meant that insurers enjoy broader investment channels," said an investment officer with a major insurer in Shanghai. "Though the freed money won't be necessarily fully flow into the stock market, it's a positive signal indeed for the lukewarm stock market."
The new rule also allowed insurers to invest up to 10 percent of their capital in the real estate market, such as through buying Real Estates Investment Trusts. The cap is bigger than market expectation. Insurers are banned from developing properties directly.
As the end of June, insurance investment capital rose to 4.17 trillion yuan, up 11.3 percent from year-start. Among them, 30.5 percent are put in bank deposits and 51.8 percent in bonds. Equities investment, including stocks, funds, equities of non-listed companies, accounted for 15.1 percent of the total insurance investment capital.
Insurers in China made an investment return of 75.5 billion yuan in the first half, with their stock investment outperforming the broad market.
China's financial sector steps up self-examinations (2010-08-11) China's banking, securities and insurance regulatory commissions have launched self-examinations to push forward the financial sector's anti-corruption campaign.
In a bid to improve the country's financial supervision system, standardize the behaviors of financial practitioners and guard against financial risks, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission developed their own codes of conducts last year.
Required by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the three Commissions launched in March self-examinations on the implementation of their respective codes of conduct.
About 3,857 banking organizations and 193,000 business outlets have been covered by the examinations.
Through the examination, risk control in banking organizations has been improved and their management mechanisms have been standardized, according to a CCDI statement issued August 10.
Meanwhile, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission punished 1,392 insurance organizations and ordered the dismissal and replacement of 156 managerial staff between 2009 and June 2010 to strengthen the supervision of insurance organizations and the management on managerial staff.
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FROM THE WATCHDOG "The lessons drawn from the global financial crisis warn us that China's banking industry should deepen education in ethics among practitioners so as to ensure stable, coordinated and sustainable development of the industry and to safeguard the legitimate rights of depositors and customers," said Wang Huaqing, secretary of the discipline inspection committee under the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
The code of conduct for the banking industry includes items requiring practitioners to guard against fraud, illegal fund raising, bribery and insider trading.
CIRC reviews Sichuan’s development of insurance brokers (2010-08-11) The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) Sichuan Bureau held a meeting to review the development of insurance brokers in the first half of 2010. Officials from all specialized insurance brokers and some provincial banks attended the meeting.
The meeting announced related checks and penalties to insurance brokers in Sichuan in the first half of 2010, summed up the development of insurance brokers and related supervisory work during the period, and arranged major tasks for insurance brokerage supervision in the second half.
Ni Rongming, general secretary of the CIRC Sichuan Bureau, reviewed the development and changes of the insurance brokerage market in recent years, analyzed the prospects, and made an in-depth study of main problems existing in the industry.
Insurance for servicemen greatly raised (2010-08-18) Ordered by the Central Military Commission, the PLA's General Logistics Department has raised insurance and compensation levels for all servicemen, who die or get injured fulfilling their duty, media reported August 18.
Starting from January 1 this year, insurance compensation for a martyr is raised to 600,000 yuan ($88,200), from the previous 86,400 yuan. The compensation for a serviceman who dies on duty is set at 300,000 yuan from the previous 57,600 yuan.
Also, compensations for 10 levels of injuries are drastically increased, with the highest compensation at 145,000 yuan. For those servicemen who die of illness will obtain 50,000 yuan of insurance compensation, said the report.
The military authorities are requested to buy commercial insurance policies for all the service men and women, according to the report.
Sun Huangtian, chief of the finance division of the PLA's General Logistics Department, told reporters in an interview that the armed forces will improve and perfect the servicemen's insurance system, which helps the military effectively implement its duty in the new century.
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FROM THE WATCHDOG
The reform will also help build up the military's coherence and capability, Sun said, as the servicemen and women are now getting increasingly busy -- and risky too – in conducting military training, scientific research and experiments, in maintaining peace abroad and in carrying out disaster rescue missions.
The newspaper said that the report earlier this month of the compensation rise has aroused vehement response among the servicemen. On August 1, the Logistics Department of the Shenyang Military Area Command, in northeast China, delivered insurance compensation of 600,000 yuan apiece to families of Sergeant Li Shouxin and Private Liu Lei, two martyrs who died three days ago in flood-fighting and disaster relief efforts in Jilin City.
Sun told the newspaper that his department will continue to improve the legal system of servicemen's insurance protection work and increase their insurance standards.
Watchdog urges settling of farm insurance claims (2010-08-25) China insurance authorities urged insurance companies nationwide to survey and settle insurance claims involving floods as part of efforts to help farmers to resume production.
As of July 31, total insurance indemnities to the nation's agriculture industry caused by floods across the country were estimated to be 1.21 billion yuan ($178.7 million), the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its website August 24.
Devastating floods hit central China's Hunan province and eastern Anhui province and northeast Jilin province this summer, destroying farm production. The expected insurance claims in each of the three provinces were estimated to exceed 200 million yuan, according to the statement.
China suffered a string of natural disasters this summer, including a massive mudslide that hit Zhouqu county, northwest China's Gansu province on August 8 and, so far, resulted in the deaths of 1,447 residents.
Also, a devastating flood in Jilin, China's main grain-growing region, affected at least 1.25 million hectares of crops and caused 45 billion yuan in damages.
Insurance regulatory body set up in Tibet (2010-08-28) Tibet's Insurance Regulatory Commission was inaugurated in Lhasa August 28 amid rapid development of the insurance industry in the southwestern Chinese plateau region.
The commission, as the Tibetan arm of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, would play an important role in maintaining financial stability and promoting economic growth in Tibet, said Wei Yingning, vice chairman of CIRC. Wei was in Lhasa for the inauguration.
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FROM THE WATCHDOG
The new body will map out plans for the insurance industry's development, oversee the business activities of local insurance companies and intermediary services and maintain a sound market order, said Wei.
Last year, Tibet reported 400 million yuan ($58.8 million) in insurance premiums, an average 21.4 percent annual increase from 2000.
Insurance companies paid a total of 760 million yuan in compensation to their clients from 2006 to 2010, according to figures provided by the Tibet regional government. The insurance sector employs more than 1,000 people in Tibet.
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ANALYSIS
China mulls insurance market easing for foreign firms (2010-08-05) China's insurance regulator is considering opening the market for compulsory automobile insurance to foreign firms, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) may allow foreign firms to offer mandatory liability insurance, said the people, who declined to be identified because the decision isn't final. Foreign insurers, which can now only offer some optional car insurance products, are losing out to local firms as drivers tend to choose the same company for both non-compulsory and mandatory coverage.
Easing the rules would allow overseas insurers including American Insurance Group Inc to boost their business in the world's biggest car market, and increase their share from 4 percent of the $164 billion insurance market six years after it was opened under the World Trade Organization commitments. Auto insurance generates more than 70 percent of revenue for PICC Property & Casualty Co, China's biggest non-life insurer.
"The government is no longer worried about foreign companies dominating China's insurance market," said Tuo Guozhu, a professor with Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business. The proposed relaxations "reflect their confidence in the nation's own insurance industry."
Foreign banks including Citigroup Inc have also trailed Chinese rivals, whose strong ties with local clients and nationwide networks helped defend their dominance.
Banks languish
Overseas lenders' share of China's banking market by assets slid to 1.71 percent last year from 2004's 1.84 percent, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission's 2009 annual report. That's even as their total assets more than doubled and the number of operational entities rose 80 percent to 338.
China lifted geographical and most business limitations on foreign insurers in 2004 to comply with WTO commitments made upon its entry into the global trading group. Fifty-two overseas insurers have set up local operations, the CIRC said in December, almost tripling from 18 before the nation became a member of the WTO on December 11, 2001.
Foreign insurers' market share has risen by less than 2 percentage points from 2.3 percent in 2004.
China Life more than quadrupled revenue from 2004 to 2009 in a market that's expanded an average 30 percent a year during the past three decades.
Foreigners 'trapped'
Only three out of 24 foreign life insurers made a profit in 2008, according to the 2009 Yearbook of China's Insurance compiled by the regulator. Money losers included Allianz China Life Insurance Co, whose loss
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ANALYSIS more than doubled from 2007 to 483 million yuan ($71.3 million).
Some foreign insurers are retreating: Canada's Sun Life Financial Inc on July 20 won regulatory approval to cut its stake in an eight-year-old venture to below 25 percent, which designates it as a local insurer. Sun Life Everbright Life Insurance Co, now a Chinese company after the Canadian firm sold half of its 50 percent stake to two local investors, lost 243 million yuan in 2008.
Foreign insurers are struggling due to a joint-venture requirement on life insurance, unequal treatment, and stricter regulations and solvency rules following the financial crisis, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a September report after a survey of 29 foreign companies including AIG.
'Well-positioned'
"A number of foreign insurers feel trapped" as they are unable to grow at a pace that would accelerate profitability, the PwC report said. "At the same time they fear that if they leave the market the regulator would look unfavorably on any request to reenter at a later date."
While it may take another few years to break even, Sun Life Everbright now is "well-positioned to capture more than a fair share" of China's life insurance market after its restructuring, according to Dikran Ohannessian, president of Sun Life Financial Asia. Premium income is forecast to more than double this year from 2009's, he said.
"It's not fair to say the commitment has diminished," Ohannessian said in an interview on Aug 2. "The market is attractive, we are committed, and we want to grow the business."
Biggest earner
While foreign life insurers are now able to offer the same services that local rivals can, a constraint on overseas non- life insurers is the fact they still can't write legally required business, including the compulsory third-party liability auto coverage.
In the total property insurance market -- which includes auto, commercial property, homeowner and cargo cover -- the share of foreign companies slid 0.1 percentage points in 2009 to 1.06 percent, according to data from the regulator. Foreign life insurers doubled their share to 5.2 percent last year from 2.6 percent in 2004. Only five of the 15 overseas property insurers were profitable in 2008, according to the yearbook.
The CIRC held discussions this year on opening up the compulsory business, the people said. The Ministry of Commerce, which leads China's WTO negotiations, supports the liberalization although the nation isn't obliged to do so under its WTO commitments, two of them said.
A press official at the regulator said no immediate comment was available.
China added almost 50 million vehicles in the six years since 2004, according to the China Association of
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ANALYSIS Automobile Manufacturers, and overtook the US as the largest auto market last year.
'Crying wolf'
Beijing-based PICC won't object to the regulatory relaxation, Chairman Wu Yan said in an interview in Shanghai.
"We'll follow any decision by the CIRC," he said. "Foreign insurers have been here for many years and people have been crying wolf, but look at the market share."
In the fight for new clients, overseas insurers "definitely aren't as competent as local companies," which have stronger ties with car dealers and more outlets in inland cities where most future growth is forecast, said Nan Sheng, a Shanghai-based analyst at UOB Kayhian Investment Co.
"If lots of foreign companies come into the market, there will be some pressure on policy acquisition costs" at local insurers, he said, referring to higher expenses on commissions and agents.
Low investment income to dog top Chinese insurers (2010-08-23) Ping An Insurance and China Life Insurance are expected to see first-half net profit growth offset by lower investment income, analysts said.
Citi forecast China Life's investment income to drop 4 percent to 30.76 billion yuan ($4.52 billion) due to the volatile financial market which dragged down net income growth to 8 percent, despite premiums doubling.
China Life's premiums grew 122 percent to 195.2 billion yuan in the first half, the report said. The insurer will announce its interim results on August 25.
Ping An, which discloses its results tomorrow, is expected to post a 51 percent growth in net profit of 7.87 billion yuan, partly due to other income.
Its premiums are projected to rise 29 percent to 83.53 billion yuan, while the income may jump 43 percent to 8.07 billion yuan. Citi said that due to better regulatory oversight and industry discipline, Ping An is expected to book a profit of 250 million from its property and casualty business versus a loss of 106 million yuan year-on-year.
"Earnings in 2010 are likely to be weak, despite strong premium growth, due to a disappointing investment environment," Citi analyst Darwin Lam said.
Beijing Guo Hua Securities analyst Ma Ning believes Beijing's move to give insurers more investment choices will improve investment returns.
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ANALYSIS
Protect rural elders (2010-08-26) Chinese society is aging. But people born in the 1980s, especially in rural areas, are finding it difficult to help their parents financially. The older generation in urban areas may have welfare support, but many of their rural counterparts are in desperate need of help, says an article on www.rednet.cn. Excerpts:
Most of the people born in the countryside in the 1980s who move to cities in search of work have a low education level. They thus face greater difficulties in finding a job that pays well. Their income is not enough for them to keep aside a certain amount for the parents. Even those who earn as much as their urban peers are burdened with the double responsibility of taking care of their immediate family, as well as their parents. And more often than not, it's the aged parents who have to suffer. A strong welfare system for the rural population could ease the senior citizens' suffering.
The majority of old people in rural areas depend largely on their offspring for support, unlike their urban counterparts who can live off their pension and enjoy other social welfare benefits such as medical insurance. Besides, the high cost of living in cities is forcing more and more young migrant workers to send their children home to stay with their aged parents. This has aggravated the condition of the aging parents.
To solve these problems, the government should provide rural youths with the necessary assistance to find good jobs that would enable them to support their aging parents. But more importantly, the government has to expand the welfare system to the countryside so that it benefits the rural population.
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Xinjiang H1 premium income up 11.05% (2010-08-03) Premium income of Xijiang Uygur autonomous region reached 11.1 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) in the first half of this year, up 22.05 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Xinjiang Insurance Regulatory Bureau. The increase is 26.24 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
The property and casualty insurance income increased 10.23 percent and life insurance premium income surged 29.35 percent.
Premium income of Jiangxi hits 14.89b yuan (2010-08-03) Jiangxi province has realized premium income of 14.89 billion yuan ($2.20 billion) in the first six months of this year, increasing by 38.6 percent year-on-year.
The premium from the property and casualty sector is 3.78 billion yuan, up 50.4 percent over last year. Life insurance premium income jumped by 35 percent to reach 11.1 billion yuan.
The compensation and payout in the first half totaled 2.93 billion yuan, down 2.3 percent year-on-year. The insurance sector assets in Jiangxi totaled 42.8 billion yuan, up 25 percent year-on-year.
Shenzhen recorded 18.23b yuan in H1 premium income, up 30% (2010-08-03) Shenzhen has recorded premium income of 18.23 billion yuan ($2.68 billion) in the first half of this year, a 29.92 percent increase over last year. The property and casualty insurance premium income rose 19.05 percent to 6.07 billion yuan and life insurance contributed 12.16 billion yuan, a 36.13 percent increase year-on-year.
The property insurance sector’s underwriting profit reached 214 million yuan, up 186.99 percent year-on-year.
Liaoning insurance premium grows 37.7% in first half (2010-08-04) The insurance industry of Liaoning province maintained a rapid growth momentum in the first half of 2010. Its premium income reached 24.96 billion yuan ($3.67 billion), ranking the 12th nationwide by amount and showing a year-on-year growth of 37.7 percent.
Out of this, premium income of property insurance was 6.52 billion yuan, up 27.2 percent over a year ago, and that of personal insurance was 18.44 billion yuan, up 41.9 percent.
In the first half year, the balance of property insurance premiums receivable was 530 million yuan, down
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STATISTICS 26.3 percent. The average rate of premiums receivable was 4 percent, down 3.7 percentage points from the same period of last year.
Shanghai life insurance premium up 37.9% in H1 (2010-08-04) In the first half year of 2010, life insurance companies in Shanghai had an original insurance premium income of 37.30 billion yuan ($5.48 billion), showing a year-on-year growth of 37.9 percent, about four percentage points higher than the national average.
Among personal insurance businesses, health insurance and accident insurance lag behind in premium income growth. Premium income of health insurance was 2.61 billion yuan, up 15.5 percent over last year, and that of accident insurance was 790 million yuan, up 18.4 percent.
Participating insurance grew the fastest and accounted for 75 percent of the total premium income of all life insurers in Shanghai. As of the end of June, premium income of participating insurance reached 25.61 billion yuan, up 57.5 percent year on year.
Chongqing insurance income up 37% in H1 (2010-08-05) The insurance industry of Chongqing municipality in southwest China saw fast business growth in the first half of this year.
Total premium income reached 18.59 billion yuan, up 37 percent year-on-year. Out of this, property insurance premium income was 3.42 billion yuan ($502.9 million), up 33.1 percent over a year ago, and personal insurance premium income was 15.18 billion yuan, up 37.9 percent.
The proportion of profit-oriented insurance products in property insurance reached 73.5 percent, up about 55 percentage points from the same period last year. Liability insurance, cargo insurance and bond insurance grew by 17.9 percent, 47.8 percent and 218.2 percent respectively.
Life insurers’ proportion of new insurance policies with premiums paid by installment was 36.3 percent, showing an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. New bancassurance policies had a share of 25.3 percent, 14.4 percentage points higher than the national average.
Henan tops nationwide by insurance premium growth (2010-08-05) In the first half-year, Henan province realized a premium income of 44.45 billion yuan ($6.54 billion), ranking sixth nationwide by amount. That showed a growth of 52.3 percent, 18.68 percentage points higher than the national average.
At the end of June, there were 44 provincial subsidiaries (with another 3 in preparation), 5,390 branches
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STATISTICS at the city level or below, 311 specialized intermediary organs and 6,404 concurrent insurance agencies.
In the first half of 2010, property insurers realized a premium income of 183 million yuan via telephone sales, up 392.8 percent year-on-year. The insurance scope continues to expand and wheat insurance was added to the pilot program of agricultural policy insurance.
Yangguang Agricultural H1 premium income down 36.41% (2010-08-05) Yangguang Agricultural Mutual Insurance recorded premium income of 716 million yuan ($105 million) in the first half, down 36.41 percent from last year’s 1.13 billion yuan, according to statistics from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).
The figure brought Yangguang from the first place of agriculture insurance companies to the second place and its ranking in the 34 Chinese-founded property insurance companies dropped from 16th to 24th.
Yangguang saw a drop in premium income between January and June.
The company, founded in 2005, is China’s only mutual insurance company. A mutual insurance company has no shareholders but instead is owned entirely by its policyholders. Such a company has no right to issue shares and its capital comes entirely from premium income.
In July the CIRC decided to freeze Yangguang’s new non-agricultural business for six months and levy a penalty of 810,000 yuan for irregularities such as unapproved establishment of a guarantee corporation, unapproved appointments of high-level management and false documents. Eleven high-level managers were punished.
Of the three other agriculture insurance companies, Anxin Agricultural Insurance Company, recorded a drop of 4.17 percent in premium income, while Guoyuan Agriculture Insurance Co Ltd and Anhua Agricultural Insurance Co Ltd increased 26.20 percent and 73.33 percent respectively.
25,000 athletes buy injury and disability insurance every year (2010-08-06) An average of 25,000 athletes buy injury and disability insurance in China every year, and the insurance has covered more than 240 sports units at regional levels, according to data from China’s General Administration of Sport.
Altogether 12,574 athletes have gotten insurance payments and the money totaled 33.31 million yuan ($4.9 million). Ten people have received special compensation of 300,000 yuan, eight got first-class compensation of 200,000 yuan and two got second-class compensation of 150,000 yuan.
The insurance features low premiums ranging from 40 yuan to 100 yuan, and high compensation,
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STATISTICS ranging from 300,000 yuan to 1,000 yuan. The buying and claiming procedures are simpler and easier than commercial insurance.
The insurance is a complement to China’s job-injury insurance, and athletes can choose to buy voluntarily.
Anhui underwriting profit at 310m yuan in H1 (2010-08-06) The insurance industry of Anhui province has shown a sound growth momentum since the China Insurance Regulatory Commission Anhui Bureau launched the regulatory policy of classified guidance and combined punishment with leniency.
Since In 2010, Anhui’s insurance industry realized an underwriting profit for six consecutive months, with 310 million yuan ($45.6 million) by the end of June.
Among the 19 property insurance bodies in Anhui, 14 realized an underwriting profit. Among its 183 municipal branches, 136 realized an underwriting profit. All of its 17 districts and cities realized an underwriting profit.
Beijing auto insurance enjoys 21.1% premium discount (2010-08-09) In the first half of this year, commercial auto insurance has been bought for 1.43 million vehicles in Beijing. The average premium discount is 21.1 percent for vehicles with no history of accidents, and the premium discount averaged 30.5 percent for policy renewal.
Beijing has adopted a floating premium system for commercial auto insurance this year, linking insurance prices with risks.
Premiums for vehicles which had more than six accidents rose 82 percent on average.
China’s bancassurance grows 100 times in a decade (2010-08-09) China’s insurance industry realized premium income of 354.7 billion yuan ($52.2 billion) in the first half of this year. Of that, bancassurance contributed 180 billion yuan.
Bancassurance has become the major sales channel of insurance products in China. From 2001 to 2009, premium income of China’s bancassurance has grown from 5 billion yuan to nearly 500 billion yuan.
But the business structure of bancassurance is still in need of regulation, as most small and medium-sized insurance companies have a limited capacity to maintain business continuity. Most products sold through this channel are one-time policies.
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The China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the top insurance watchdog, will urge the establishment of an independent settlement system for bancassurance and study the withdrawal system for bancassurance business.
Inner Mongolia P&C underwriting profits rise (2010-08-10) The insurance industry in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region sustained sound development, realizing a premium income of 11.39 billion yuan (1.67 billion), which showed a year-on-year growth of 29.3 percent. The underwriting profits for property and casualty insurance rose by 584 percent to 303 million yuan.
The premium income coming from the P&C sector is 4.87 billion yuan, up 29.3 percent. Of the 13 property insurance companies in this autonomous region, 11 realized profits. The life insurance sector contributed 6.53 billion yuan, a 19.21 percent increase over last year.
The assets of Inner Mongolia’s insurance industry totaled 33.12 billion yuan, rising 12.94 percent year-on-year, while compensation and payouts reached 2.52 billion yuan, up 7.52 percent.
Taikang Life H1 premium income rises 49% (2010-08-11) Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd said its premium income in the first half of this year increased 49 percent to reach 51.49 billion yuan ($7.56 billion) and it has over two million newly added clients.
Taikang’s bancassurance business witnessed robust growth, with new policies growing by 340 percent.
The insurer also maintains healthy growth in the pension insurance sector. It now has more than 3,500 enterprise clients and the pension assets entrusted to it broke 14.5 billion yuan last year.
Shandong premium income up 31.19% year on year (2010-08-11) The insurance industry of Shandong province maintained a sustainable and sound development in the first half of this year, and the market operation showed a sound momentum of fast-growing business, increasing benefit and optimizing structure, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) Shandong Bureau.
Premium income in Shandong (excluding Qingdao) in the first half of this year was 46.65 billion yuan ($6.86 billion), with a year-on-year increase of 31.19 percent, ranking fifth in China.
The premium income of property insurance companies was 12.6 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 30.52 percent; and life insurance companies’ income was 34 billion yuan, with a year-on-year
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STATISTICS increase of 31.44 percent.
In the first half of this year, 22 subsidiaries mechanisms received an administrative penalty. Among them, one was ordered to stop accepting new business, and one was revoked of its license. The fines to institutions and individuals reached 11 billion yuan.
Coverage of property insurance for home less than 15% in Shanghai (2010-08-11) The frequent rainstorms in Shanghai since August increase the possibilities of losses concerning houses and indoor properties, so local citizens have become more active in purchasing property insurance for home.
The coverage of property insurance for homes in Shanghai is less than 15 percent. To widen the coverage, insurers that provide such insurance should diversify the purchase channels, as currently the insurance is only available via sales staff of property insurance.
Shanxi insurance market sees stable growth in H1 (2010-08-12) In the first half of this year, the premium income of the insurance industry in Shanxi province was 20.20 billion yuan ($ 2.97 billion), up 25.84 percent year on year, 21.17 percentage points higher than the growth rate last year, according to statistics from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission Shanxi Bureau.
The size of monthly premiums was stable at around 3 billion yuan from January to June 2010, up 32 percent from the same period in 2008, showing steady growth as a whole, according to the statistics.
Among them, life insurance premiums were 15.01 billion yuan, up 23.53 over a year ago, and property insurance premium was 5.20 billion yuan, up 33.04 percent. By the end of June, the assets of the Shanxi insurance industry had reached 62.50 billion yuan, 17.67 percent higher than the end of 2009.
In the first half of this year, the vehicle insurance business developed rapidly, and vehicle insurance premiums and limits of liability were 338.20 billion yuan. Engineering insurance premium grew by 58.23 percent year on year to reach 52.03 billion yuan. Cargo insurance grew by up to 51.63 percent. Agricultural insurance and coal mine employer's liability insurance in Shanxi increased by 48.04 percent and 29.05 percent respectively. The province’s export credit insurance premium and payout were 1.37 billion yuan and 7.23 million yuan respectively.
China Life January-July premium income 204.6b yuan (2010-08-12) China Life Insurance Co said August 12 the premium income it earned in the first seven months of this year totaled 204.6 billion yuan ($30.1 billion).
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The blue-chip insurer didn't give a comparison figure for the seven months ended July 31 in its statement, but reported earlier its premium income for the same period in 2009 was 191.1 billion yuan.
Taiping Life premiums reach 21.35b yuan by July 31 (2010-08-13) Taiping Insurance subsidiary Taiping Life Insurance recorded total premiums of 21.35 billion yuan ($3.14 billion) in the seven month period ending July 31, 2010, according to a company statement issued August 12.
The company's total premiums for the first half of 2010 came to 19.1 billion yuan.
CPIC Jan-July premiums total 85.9b yuan (2010-08-16) China Pacific Insurance Group (CPIC) property insurance subsidiary took premiums of 31.1 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in the period, up 45.33 percent year-on-year, media reported August 16. China Pacific Life Insurance's premium income for the first seven months of 2010 reached 54.8 billion yuan, representing growth of 47.85 percent year-on-year when adjusted for changes in accounting standards last year, the report said.
CPIC's life and property insurance subsidiaries had recorded respective premium incomes of 49 billion yuan and 27 billion yuan by the end of June this year.
Taiping's P&C Insurance unit drives group H1 profit growth (2010-08-17) Taiping Insurance recorded net income of $603 million in the first six months of this year, up 9.7 percent year-on-year, the company reported August 17. The company's life insurance segment contributed net income of $356.68 million, up 5.6 percent year-on-year, while its reinsurance business profits shrank 36.6 percent year-on-year to $173.58 million, the report said. Net income from property and casualty insurance jumped 8.9 times to $191.86 million, the report said.
Total revenues came to $27.78 billion in the first half of 2010, up from $15.38 billion in the same period last year, the report said. The company wrote premiums in the first half worth $27.22 billion, up 89.6 percent on an annual basis, while net investment income came to $2.07 billion, up 37.4 percent on an annual basis, the report said.
Taiping Insurance subsidiary Taiping Life Insurance recorded total premiums of 21.35 billion yuan in the first seven months this year, up 124.6 percent annually, according to the report.
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PICC H1 profit soars 32 times (2010-08-18) PICC Property and Casualty recorded net income of 2.65 billion yuan ($390 million) in the first six months of this year, up from 80 million yuan the same period last year, PICC announced August 17.
During the period, the insurer's net premiums grew 32.8 percent year-on-year to 57.68 billion yuan, while net claims increased at an annual rate of 29.3 percent to 38.11 billion percent in the period, giving the company an underwriting profit of 1.9 billion yuan in the first half of 2010, compared with a loss of 1.53 billion yuan in the same period last year.
PICC recorded revenue of 81.63 billion yuan in the first half of 2010, representing an increase of 21.7 percent from the same period last year, which the company attributed mainly to the 27 percent year-on-year growth recorded by its motor vehicle insurance segment in the period. Motor vehicle insurance revenue came to 58.85 billion yuan in the first half.
PICC recently received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to establish an operations center for its cargo insurance business in Shanghai, eeo.com.cn reported August 18.
China insurers report loss on rising reimbursements of traffic insurance (2010-08-21) China's insurers felt the side effect of the country's booming auto market -- with operating losses totaling 2.9 billion yuan ($427 million) in 2009.
The Insurance Association of China said August 20 its 30 member insurers that are engaged in compulsory vehicle insurance business underwrote 85.02 million units of vehicles in 2009, up 23 percent from a year ago.
Total compulsory insurance premiums rose an annual 21 percent to 66.8 billion yuan, the association said.
Meanwhile, the industry handled 11.78 million claims regarding traffic liability mandatory insurance products last year with reimbursements totaling 47.2 billion yuan, it said.
Offsetting 2.4 billion yuan investment revenue with 18.6-billion-yuan operating costs, the industry posted a loss of 2.9 billion yuan ($427 million) last year, according to the association.
Retail sales of China-made autos rose 17.18 percent year-on-year to 1.056 million units in July this year, raising auto sales in the first seven months to more than 8.24 million units, up 28.58 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center released earlier this month.
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China insurance industry assets total $672b at end-July (2010-08-23) The assets of China's insurance sector totaled 4.57 trillion yuan ($672 billion) at the end of July 2010, the nation's insurance regulator said August 23.
Premium revenue of the sector during the first seven months of the year totaled 903.91 billion yuan. Of that, 670.14 billion yuan came from the personal insurance business and 233.77 billion yuan came from the property insurance business, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its website.
The commission did not provide figures for year-on-year change.
Auto insurance companies record 2.9b yuan in losses (2010-08-23) Standard auto insurance companies recorded losses of 2.9 billion yuan ($426 million) in 2009, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission reported August 23. The insurers generated premiums of 60.5 billion yuan in 2009 and claims incurred of 47.2 billion yuan, according to the report.
The insurers recorded operation costs of 18.6 billion yuan and investment income of 2.4 billion yuan, the report said.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission claimed that the basic rates for standard auto insurance will remain the same, according to a report.
China Life Q2 net drops 27% (2010-08-26)
China Life Insurance Co Ltd, the world's top life insurer by market value, said its net profit for the second quarter fell 27 percent as a weaker financial market hit gains from financial assets, offsetting higher premium incomes.
The firm posted a net profit of 7.82 billion yuan ($1.15 billion) in the April-June quarter, the third-best quarter since 2008, versus 10.66 billion yuan a year earlier.
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STATISTICS Five analysts surveyed by Reuters had on average forecast a profit of 7.39 billion yuan for the April-June quarter.
However, for the first half ended June, net profit totaled at 18.03 billion yuan, up 7.4 percent from a year ago.
The insurer warned of more uncertainty in capital markets in the second half of the year.
Mainland insurance companies have seen their investments in domestic stocks fall over the past few months, offsetting a steady increase in premiums as the country's economy, which is now the world's second biggest, continues to expand.
"The outlook of capital markets remains unclear, creating relatively big pressures on matching assets and liabilities as well as realizing investment return target," the Beijing-based insurer said in a statement filed with the stock exchanges.
Shanghai's stock market, on which China Life depends for a sizable portion of its investment income, has fallen 17.8 percent so far this year. The index has rebounded 12.3 percent since July, but any stock market gains from that period won't be reflected until the second half of the year.
The company booked 382 million yuan in losses from changes in fair value on financial assets following the Shanghai stock market sell-off.
Its gross written premiums and policy fees rose 13 percent to 183.6 billion yuan in the first half from a year earlier. Gross investment yield stood at 2.51 percent in the half.
Ping An Insurance, a smaller domestic rival of China Life, on August 24 reported forecast-beating quarterly earnings but warned of a possible slowdown as the mainland tries to cool its racing economy.
Beijing's move to introduce new rules that would let insurers invest as much as three times their previous limit in overseas capital markets is likely to help over the longer term, as the insurance companies become increasingly adept at managing their premiums.
Such a relaxation will allow China Life and No 2 player Ping An to diversify away from their core Shanghai stock market, notorious for its volatility and susceptibility to the whims of retail investors.
China Life had reported a 56 percent jump in its investment income in the first quarter of this year to over 18 billion yuan, but few expected it to repeat that feat in the April-June quarter due to the stock market slide.
For mainland insurance companies, year-on-year comparisons may be distorted by accounting changes as Beijing introduced new rules for insurers late last year designed to bring standards more into line with global norms.
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STATISTICS Hong Kong-listed shares of China Life are down about 15 percent so far this year, lagging a 5.6 percent decline on the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
China Pacific Insurance net income rises on premiums growth, cost curbs (2010-08-29) China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the nation's third-biggest insurer, said profit rose in the first half as premiums expanded and the company curbed costs.
Net income climbed to 4.02 billion yuan ($591 million), or 0.47 yuan a share, from 2.41 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Chairman Gao Guofu boosted premiums by 48 percent to defend the company's position as China's third-biggest life insurer, partly offsetting the impact of a stock-market rout on earnings. Shanghai-based Pacific Insurance also improved profitability at its property and casualty unit, which was overtaken last year by Ping An Insurance (Group) Co as the nation's second-largest non-life operator.
"Pacific Insurance's premium growth was fairly rapid as it boosted sales through bank outlets" partly due to concerns about its market share, said Tong Chengdun, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guosen Securities Co before the announcement. "There should be some unrealized profit from bond holdings, and that can partially offset losses from stocks."
Net investment income, mainly dividends and bond yields, was 8.96 billion yuan, according to the statement. Net realized and unrealized investment gains were 151 million yuan.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 27 percent in the first half of 2010 amid concerns that curbs on bank lending and a crackdown on real-estate speculation will strain economic growth. The gauge is up 8.3 percent since July 1 as investors speculate that policies may be eased to counter a slowdown.
Pacific Insurance fell 0.8 percent to HK$30.05 in Hong Kong trading August 27, extending this year's loss to 2.8 percent. The company and the state pension fund raised HK$24.1 billion in December in the second-largest public share sale in Hong Kong.
China Life Insurance Co, the nation's biggest insurer, said August 25 first-year profit rose 7.4 percent, while net income at Ping An climbed 29 percent.
Pacific Insurance's gross premiums are trailing those at New China Life Insurance Co through June this year, according to China Insurance Regulatory Commission data, putting the company at risk of losing its long-standing position as the nation's third-biggest life insurer.
China Pacific's net premiums earned were 46.9 billion, according to the statement.
The non-life unit's combined ratio, which measures claims and expenses as a percentage of premiums
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STATISTICS earned, dropped to 94.5 percent from 97.5 percent a year earlier.
Some insurers’ settlement interest rate of universal insurance in H1 (2010-08-02) Annualized settlement Company Product interest rate January 4.00% February 4.00%
China Life Ruifeng Endowment March 4.00% China Life Insurance April 4.00% May 4.00% June 4.00% January 4.00% February 4.00%
Ping An Caifu Rensheng Group March 4.00% Ping An Life Annuity Insurance April 4.00% May 4.00% June 4.00% January 4.00% February 4.00%
PICC Life Zhisheng Jinzhanghu March 4.00% PICC Life Endowment Insurance April 4.00% May 4.00% June 3.90% January 4.00% February 4.00% March 4.00% New China Life Deyi Licai Endowment Insurance April 3.80% May 3.80% June 3.60% Taikang Life Taikang Aijia Yingjia Whole Life January 4.15% Insurance February 4.15% March 4.15%
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April 4.15% May 4.00% June 4.00% January 3.7% February 3.7% March 3.7% AIA Universal Whole Life Plan C April 3.7% May 3.7% June 3.7% January 3.75% February 3.75%
Shengming Zhixin Endowment March 3.75% Sino-Life Insurance April 3.75% May 3.75% June 3.75% January 3.80% February 3.80%
Union Life Caifu Rensheng Whole March 3.80% Union Life Life Plan A April 3.80% May 3.80% June 3.75% January 4.2% February 4.2%
Generali Universal Financial Account March 4.2% Generali China (Personal Insurance) April 4.2% May 4.2% June 4.2% January 3.50% February 3.50%
Sun Life Everbright Sun Life Everbright Life Jin Bao Li March 3.50% Life Endowment Insurance (A) April 3.50% May 3.50% June 3.50%
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January 3.45% February 3.45%
Cathay Jin De Li Endowment March 3.40% Cathay Life Insurance April 3.40% May 3.35% June 3.35% January 4.25% February 4.25%
Kuo Hua Caifu Zengzhi Whole Life March 4.25% Kuo Hua Life Insurance April 4.25% May 4.00% June 3.90% January 3.20% February 3.20% March 3.20% CPIC ING Wen De Li Endowment Insurance April 3.20% May 3.20% June 3.20% January 3.75% February 3.75% March 3.75% MetLife MetLife Whole Life Insurance April 3.55% May 3.55% June 3.55% January 4.00% February 4.00%
Aviva-COFCO Life Jincai Rensheng March 4.00% Aviva-COFCO Life Whole Life Insurance April 4.00% May 4.00% June 4.00% AEGON-CNOOC AEGON-CNOOC Zhuoyue Licai January 3.90% Life Whole Life Insurance February 3.90% March 3.90%
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April 3.90% May 3.90% June 3.90% January 2.8% February 2.8%
Heng An Standard Heng An Standard Fuhui Liannian March 2.8% Life Endowment Insurance April 2.8% May 2.8% June 2.8% January - February -
Huatai Anxin Caifu Whole Life March 4.15% Huaitai Life Insurance April 4.15% May 4.15% June 4.05% (Source: Hexun.com)
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January-July insurance industry figures (2010-08-23)
Unit: 10,000 yuan Premium income 90391052.21 1. Property insurance 23377256.61 2. Personal insurance 67013795.60 (1) Life insurance 61265003.88 (2) Health insurance 4087049.15 (3) Personal accident insurance 1661742.57 Compensation & payouts 17176688.81 1. Property insurance 8968452.02 2. Personal insurance 8208236.80 (1) Life insurance 6380879.84 (2) Health insurance 1438615.57 (3) Personal accident insurance 388741.39 Operation costs 7920189.10 Bank savings 123380990.92 Investment 298221237.79 Total assets 456568496.89 Note: 1. These figures are calculated using the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (2006). 2. The figures of premiums, compensation & payouts and operation costs are based on statistics in July 2010. The numbers for bank savings, investment and total assets were collected at the end of July 2010. 3. Bank savings include demand deposits, time deposits, refundable deposits and margin deposits. 4. These statistics are unaudited and are based on monthly reports submitted by insurance companies to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
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January-July premiums of life insurance companies (2010-08-23)
Unit: 10,000 yuan Capital structure Company Premium income China Life Insurance Co Ltd 21470160.04 China Life Insurance (Group) Company 741532.31 (excluding the listed arm) China Pacific Life Insurance Co Ltd 5836929.62 Ping An Life Insurance Company of China 10099982.13 New China Life Insurance Co Ltd 6105681.60 Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd 5700060.73 Taiping Life Insurance Co Ltd 2134953.27 Minsheng Life Insurance Co Ltd 482099.39 Sino Life Insurance Co Ltd 757801.41 Ping An Pension Insurance Co Ltd 282396.15 Zhongrong Life Insurance Co Ltd 37.12 Union Life Insurance Co Ltd 414185.40 Ping An Health Insurance Co Ltd 8710.03 PICC Health Insurance Co Ltd 637315.62 Chinese-funded Huaxia Life Insurance Co Ltd 226582.93 Zhengde Life Insurance Co Ltd 363202.41 Sinatay Life Insurance Co Ltd 134023.43 Jiahe Life Insurance Co Ltd 272477.64 Great Wall Life Insurance Co Ltd 131691.13 Kunlun Health Insurance Co Ltd 7779.68 Reward Health Insurance Co Ltd 176.11 PICC Life Insurance Company 5148817.64 Guohua Life Insurance Co Ltd 275310.03 Yingda Taihe Life Insurance Co Ltd 182560.50 Happy Life Insurance Co Ltd 347566.44 Sunshine Life Insurance Co Ltd 841060.87 Bainian Life Insurance Co Ltd 29820.68 China Post Life Insurance Co Ltd 65342.53 Anbang Life Insurance Co Ltd 2.23 Sum 62698259.06 Foreign-funded Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co Ltd 102365.38 or joint venture Pacific-Antai Life Insurance Co Ltd (PALIC) 58297.08 Allianz China Life Insurance Co Ltd 95834.28 AXA-Minmetals Assurance Co Ltd 60023.73 CITIC-Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd 308648.27 China Life CMG Insurance Co Ltd 35436.61 chinadaily.com.cn ------65
STATISTICS John Hancock Tianan Life Insurance Co Ltd 19566.14 Generali China Life Insurance Co Ltd 443131.96 Sun Life Everbright Life Insurance Co Ltd 314046.99 American International Assurance Co Ltd 456185.48 (AIA) Haier New York Life Insurance Co Ltd 24780.41 ING Capital Life Insurance Co Ltd 70410.07 AVIVA-COFCO Life Insurance Co Ltd 312263.03 AEGON-CNOOC Life Insurance Co Ltd 109444.05 CIGNA and CMC Life Insurance Co Ltd 217708.23 Nissay-Greatwall Life Insurance Co Ltd 11402.14 Heng An Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd 77302.09 Skandia-BSAM Life Insurance Co Ltd 48327.50 Sino-US MetLife Insurance Co Ltd 128865.05 Sino French Life Insurance Company 14309.50 Huatai Life Insurance Company 417713.08
Cathay Life Insurance Co 39661.54
United MetLife Insurance Co Ltd 81653.01 Samsung Air China Life Insurance Co Ltd 22329.89 Great Eastern Life Assurance (China) 33262.30 Company Shin Kong & HNA Life Insurance Co Ltd 5627.50 HSBC Life Insurance Co Ltd 6410.47 King Dragon Life Insurance Company Ltd 7983.20 Sum 3522988.97 Total 66221248.02 Note: 1. The amount of premium income is based on monthly reports submitted by life insurance companies to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. 2. The premiums are unaudited statistics used for companies’ internal supervision. Life insurance companies will assume no legal responsibilities for them. 3. AIA includes branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Suzhou, Dongguan and Jiangmen. 4. Since March 2009, Huatai Life Insurance Company has changed itself to a foreign-funded enterprise from a Chinese-funded one. 5. Since September 2009, Nissay-SVA Life Insurance Co Ltd has changed its name to Nissay-Greatwall Life Insurance Co Ltd.
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January-July premiums of property insurance companies (2010-08-23)
Unit: 10,000 yuan Capital structure Company Premium income PICC Holding Company 9384028.78 China Continent Property and Casualty Insurance Co 792571.08 Ltd China Export & Credit Insurance Corp (Sinosure) 472108.07 China United Property Insurance Company 1193347.38 China Pacific Property Insurance Co Ltd 3108422.91 Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Company 3490613.59 of China Ltd Huatai Insurance Company of China Ltd 222811.05 Tianan Insurance Company Ltd of China 587186.72 Dazhong Insurance Co Ltd 101821.44 Sinosafe Insurance Co Ltd 243191.78 Yong An Insurance Co Ltd 372822.44 Tai Ping Insurance Co Ltd 311855.31 Ming An Insurance Co Ltd 92354.46 Bank of China Insurance Co Ltd 140967.54 Anxin Agricultural Insurance Company 44375.44 Alltrust Insurance Company 347509.96 Chinese-funded AnBang Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 424392.31 Cinda Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 4718.15 Anhua Agricultural Insurance Co Ltd 221554.09 Tianping Auto Insurance Co Ltd 195872.57 Sunshine Insurance Company 643791.74 Yangguang Agricultural Mutual Insurance 120124.95 Du-Bang Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 219373.72 Bohai Property Insurance 61758.20 China Agricultural Property Insurance Co Ltd 11670.62 China Life Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 643313.16 Ancheng Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 81412.00 Chang An Property & Liability Insurance Ltd 95287.71 Guoyuan Agriculture Insurance Co Ltd 68001.07 Dinghe Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 42588.88 China Coal Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 1.44 Yingda Taihe Property Insurance Co Ltd 110130.41 Zheshang Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 46131.04 Zking Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 19911.47 Sum 23916021.48 chinadaily.com.cn ------67
STATISTICS AIU Insurance Company 60552.01 Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co Ltd 25606.02 Winterthur Insurance 10607.83 Royal & Sun Alliance 10282.99 Federal Insurance Company 8429.76 Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company 26376.50 Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance 20532.21 Allianz Insurance Company 17769.38 Sompo Japan Insurance Inc 9837.71 Foreign-funded or Liberty Insurance 18736.92 joint venture Groupama Insurance 2269.63 Zurich Insurance Company 13424.04 Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance 6577.04 Generali China Insurance Co Ltd 12505.03 Aioi Insurance Company 2268.76 Cathay Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd 3310.19 Nipponkoa Insurance Co Ltd 1482.28 LIG Insurance Co Ltd 1915.40 Sum 252483.69 Total 24168505.18 Note: 1. The amount of premium income is based on monthly reports submitted by property and casualty insurance companies to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. 2. The premiums are unaudited statistics used for companies’ internal supervision. Property and casualty insurance companies will assume no legal responsibilities for them. 3. AIU Insurance Company’s figure includes premiums of its branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
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January-July premium income of all regions (2010-08-23)
Unit: 10,000 yuan Property Accident Health Region Premium income Life insurance insurance insurance insurance Whole country 90391052.21 23377256.61 61265003.88 1661742.57 4087049.15 Beijing 5859914.46 1218684.98 4163510.24 90118.67 387600.57 Municipality Tianjin Municipality 1299015.69 400427.86 808235.65 19228.37 71123.81 Hebei Province 4740283.93 1173594.89 3310862.60 64279.35 191547.09 Liaoning Province 2831528.67 726852.76 1912097.77 38238.03 154340.11 Dalian City 898321.57 264773.01 571916.66 15175.32 46456.57 Shanghai 5414994.85 1159540.01 3863944.41 90961.14 300549.29 Municipality Jiangsu Province 7409587.03 1810141.89 5171549.95 161347.63 266547.56 Zhejiang Province 4333189.96 1499436.04 2583242.95 99555.02 150955.96 Ningbo City 856351.81 380648.39 440312.44 16118.07 19272.91 Fujian Province 2148357.17 615617.40 1362445.28 47958.33 122336.16 Xiamen City 474521.94 165098.94 276119.20 9064.11 24239.69 Shandong 5320592.80 1421037.86 3483494.35 117201.70 298858.89 Province Qingdao City 927911.18 297343.09 558990.97 12841.95 58735.17 Guangdong 7602458.99 1797109.65 5329826.95 140714.34 334808.05 Province Shenzhen City 2100215.35 684885.87 1275396.53 47510.79 92422.16 Hainan Province 294213.79 109032.47 169468.29 5488.53 10224.50 Shanxi Province 2275258.44 568446.64 1600886.39 29479.37 76446.05 Jilin Province 1501942.49 406144.46 1019833.37 17196.47 58768.19 Heilongjiang 2138969.50 472540.73 1568059.40 28971.32 69398.05 Province Anhui Province 2907907.73 704429.15 2055482.83 34430.25 113565.49 Jiangxi Province 1635952.27 414983.23 1133860.10 26550.54 60558.41 Henan Province 4995897.20 802793.11 3939256.53 56612.71 197234.86 Hubei Province 3129666.19 616355.73 2339795.24 53110.98 120404.24 Hunan Province 2722481.02 633272.27 1896496.46 60404.77 132307.52 Chongqing 2079849.61 391145.50 1574712.79 43534.42 70456.90 Municipality Sichuan Province 4887872.35 1131385.55 3442979.70 104606.23 208900.87 Guizhou Province 771950.38 281579.22 444492.13 21374.31 24504.73 Yunnan Province 1436193.27 580710.83 712766.27 46045.84 96670.33
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STATISTICS Tibet Autonomous 32328.37 26220.14 2175.83 2147.97 1784.43 Region Shaanxi Province 2008280.38 527263.48 1365945.68 37157.42 77913.80 Gansu Province 914786.42 252598.15 611132.68 16137.97 34917.63 Qinghai Province 159086.09 63831.41 83982.18 4676.47 6596.03 Ningxia Hui Autonomous 315723.88 111240.15 172107.52 8663.34 23712.87 Region Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous 1231677.67 434251.28 678095.19 32219.49 87111.71 Region Inner Mongolia Autonomous 1383050.70 645351.24 662138.21 28195.59 47365.66 Region Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous 1166565.52 409211.77 677161.68 33151.47 47040.60 Region Group or parent 184153.53 179277.47 2229.45 1274.32 1372.30 companies Note: 1. Figures for group or parent companies refer to income of businesses operated by group or parent companies and are not restricted to any one region. 2. These statistics are unaudited and are based on monthly reports submitted by insurance companies to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
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