Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter “Ping An” or the “Group”, HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) is number 21 overall in the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list, climbing eight places since last year. With sustained growth and revenues of USD184,280 million, the Group ranked second among global financial enterprises, fifth among all Chinese enterprises.
The Fortune Global 500 list is regarded as the most authoritative ranking for the world’s biggest listed companies, measured primarily by annual revenues and profits. This year, total revenue of the 500 global listed companies reached a record high of USD33 trillion. This year, the number of Chinese (including Hong Kong) enterprises reached 124, surpassing U.S. companies (121) for the first time.
Ping An achieved sustained business growth in 2019, as the Group further pursued its “finance + technology” and “finance + ecosystem” transformation strategies, and continued to enhance its data-driven operational capabilities.
In 2019, the Group’s revenue amounted to RMB1,168,867 million, up 19.7% year on year. Operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rose 18.1% year on year to RMB132,955 million. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rose 39.1% year on year to RMB149,407 million. As of 31 December 2019, the Group’s total number of retail customers surpassed 200 million and internet users reached 516 million. The Group acquired 36.57 million new customers year-on-year, 40.7% of whom were sourced from internet users within the Group’s five ecosystems – financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services, and smart city services.
Ping An aims to “serve the real economy with finance”. Through its insurance, banking, trust and fintech businesses, the Group has allocated more than RMB4 trillion to economic and social development, including means such as insurance protection, loan provision, debt-equity plans and inclusive finance. For example, Ping An and the Guangdong provincial government jointly established the “Guangdong-Ping An Development Fund” of RMB150 billion, investing in large-scale infrastructure within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, including smart city construction, a high-speed railway, an inter-city railway and an airport. Loans for entities granted by Ping An Bank in 2019 reached RMB2.1 trillion, increasing by RMB153.6 billion compared to the end of 2018. Ping An Property & Casualty introduced a range of property, personnel and the third-party liability insurance products for small- and micro-sized enterprises, for protection against their most common risks.
With “finance + technology” as Ping An’s core and main businesses, the Group applies world-leading technologies in its main financial business to increase efficiency, cut costs and enhance risk management while offering customers excellent products and service experiences. Its innovations include the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) interview robots in the Group’s life and health insurance unit to conduct 100% of sales agent recruitment interviews and the agents’ exclusive smart personal assistant AskBob, which has served agents 340 million times to date. Ping An Property & Casualty launched the Ping An Motor Insurance Trust Claim service, which has cut the average turnaround time of a single claim to three minutes and provides 45 million auto owners with a line of credit. In banking, Ping An developed AI-powered retail banking for all processes including sales, risk control, operations, and management. AI is also used to credit card approvals; of the 14.3 million credit cards issued by Ping An Bank in 2019, nearly 90% were automatically approved by AI.
Ping An’s technologies have also been widely applied to support its five ecosystems. By providing innovative products and services to the market, the Group’s technology business grew rapidly in 2019: total revenue increased by 27.1% year on year to RMB82,109 million. The total valuation of the technology companies reached USD69.1 billion. As of 31 December 2019, the Group had a technology team of nearly 110,000 technology business employees, 35,000 R&D employees, and 2,600 scientists. Ping An’s technology patent applications reached 21,383, and Ping An achieved global ranking of first in fintech and second in digital healthtech for the number of published patent applications.
Ping An is also pursuing sustainable development based on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. Its MSCI ESG rating has been upgraded twice in a row to “A”. Ping An also built an AI-ESG platform to empower responsible investment. As of 31 December 2019, the Group’s responsible investment reached RMB954,449 million, sustainable insurance insured amount reached RMB121.21 trillion, and the total line of green credit granted reached RMB59,056 million. Ping An is also continuing to drive its “Ping An Rural Communities Support” initiative in China, with RMB24,905 million in poverty alleviation funds granted to date. The Group has also supported the COVID-19 pandemic control efforts in China, with support measures such as insurance protection, medical support and external donations. The Group’s total amount of material and cash donations has exceeded RMB175 million.
In 2020, Ping An’s brand value continues to increase: the Group ranked 7th in Forbes Global 2000 list and 38th in BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, maintaining its top position among global insurance brands.
Other Chinese enterprises in the top 30 in the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list include Sinopec Group (2nd place), State Grid Corporation of China (3rd), China National Petroleum (4th), China State Construction Engineering (18th), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (24th), Hon Hai Precision Industry (26th) and China Construction Bank (30th).
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