April 23, 2024 – Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Co., Ltd. ("Ping An", "Ping An", "Group" or the "Company", stock code: Hong Kong Stock Exchange 2318, Shanghai Stock Exchange 601318) today announced its results for the three months ended March 31, 2024.
In the first quarter of 2024, the national economy started steadily, and the performance of the capital market continued to improve, but there are still growth challenges such as insufficient demand and weak expectations. In the face of opportunities and challenges, Ping An adhered to its main financial business, served the real economy, strengthened its insurance protection function, continued to implement the 16-character business policy of "focusing on its main business, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, optimizing structure, and improving quality and efficiency", deepened the development of the two-wheel parallel and technology-driven strategy of "comprehensive finance + medical care for the elderly", continuously consolidated its comprehensive financial advantages, adhered to customer demand-oriented, and focused on promoting high-quality development.
In the first quarter of 2024, the Group achieved an operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of 38.709 billion yuan. Among them, the three core businesses of life and health insurance, property insurance and banking resumed growth, and the total operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 39.816 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.3%. In the first quarter of 2024, the new business value of life and health insurance business reached RMB12.890 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.7% on a comparable basis, and the average new business value per agent channel increased by 56.4% year-on-year. As of the end of March 2024, Ping An had nearly 234 million individual customers, an increase of 1.0% from the beginning of the year, and the average number of customer contracts was 2.94. In the first quarter of 2024, Ping An achieved health insurance premium income of nearly RMB40 billion, and customers with the rights and interests of the medical and elderly care ecosystem accounted for about 70% of the new business value of Ping An Life, an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year.
The value of new business in life and health insurance achieved double-digit growth, and the channel strength and business quality were significantly improved
We continued to deepen the strategy of "4 channels + 3 products", and our core business operating indicators performed well. Thanks to the comprehensive expansion of channels, the improvement of business quality, and the launch of diversified products and services, Ping An Life's operation has developed steadily. In the first quarter of 2024, the new business value of life and health insurance business reached RMB12.890 billion, up 20.7% year-on-year on a comparable basis, and the new business value ratio was 22.8%, up 6.5 percentage points year-on-year on a comparable basis. From January to March 2024, the original insurance premium income of life insurance and health insurance business was RMB185.346 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, ranking leading in the industry in terms of scale and continuing to improve its business momentum.
In terms of channel operation, Ping An Life adheres to the value-oriented approach of high-quality development, continues to deepen transformation, comprehensively builds multi-channel professional sales capabilities, and significantly improves the quality of development. In the first quarter of 2024, the per capita new business value of Ping An Life's agent channel increased by 56.4% year-on-year, and the proportion of "excellent+" in the new manpower increased by 11.0 percentage points year-on-year. Ping An Life and Ping An Bank continued to deepen the exclusive agency model, while expanding external channels for high-quality cooperative banks, promoting the standardization of branch operations, and continuously improving operational efficiency. As of the end of March 2024, the continuation rate of full payment by existing customers in grid promotion cities increased by 2.5 percentage points year-on-year.
In terms of product operation, in the first quarter of 2024, Ping An Life continued to focus on the three major markets of wealth, pension and security to meet the needs of customers for diversified insurance products, and continued to deepen its three core services of medical and health, home care and high-end elderly care by relying on the Group's medical and elderly care ecosystem to build a differentiated competitive advantage. In terms of healthcare, in the first quarter of 2024, Ping An Life's health management has served more than 10 million customers, and as of the end of March 2024, Ping An has covered 54 cities across the country, with a total of nearly 100,000 people qualified for home care services, and in March 2024, Ping An and its partners jointly established the "Ping An Butler Safe Elderly Service Alliance" and released the "573 Home Safety Transformation Service" In terms of high-end elderly care, Ping An's high-end elderly care projects have been launched in four cities: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Foshan.
The integrated financial model continued to deepen, and the property insurance, banking and insurance capital investment businesses performed steadily
Ping An adheres to the customer-centric business philosophy and provides one-stop comprehensive financial solutions that are "worry-free, time-saving, and cost-saving". As of the end of March 2024, the number of individual customers of the Group was nearly 234 million, an increase of 1.0% from the beginning of the year, and the average number of customer contracts reached 2.94. Since the end of 2019, the number of customers has increased by 17.9%, while the number of contracts per customer has increased by 10.1%.
The property insurance business grew steadily, and the quality of the business remained at a healthy level. In the first quarter of 2024, Ping An Property & Casualty's insurance service revenue was RMB80.627 billion, up 5.7% year-on-year. Ping An Property & Casualty's overall combined ratio increased by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year to 99.6%, and the overall combined ratio excluding guarantee insurance was 98.4%, mainly due to the impact of the blizzard disaster in the early part of the Spring Festival and the recovery of travel. Blizzard disasters increased the combined ratio by 2.0 percentage points in the quarter.
The bank's business operations remained stable and asset quality remained stable. In the first quarter of 2024, Ping An Bank achieved a net profit of RMB14.932 billion, up 2.3% year-on-year, driven by digital transformation, reducing operational costs and increasing efficiency, strengthening asset quality control, and increasing the collection and disposal of non-performing assets. As of the end of March 2024, Ping An Bank's non-performing loan ratio was 1.07%, the provision coverage ratio was 261.66%, and the capital adequacy ratio at all levels met regulatory requirements, of which the core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio increased to 9.59%.
The investment income of insurance funds performed well, and the scale increased steadily. In the first quarter of 2024, the Company achieved an annualized comprehensive investment return of 3.1% and an annualized net investment return of 3.0% for the insurance fund portfolio. As of March 31, 2024, the size of the Company's insurance fund portfolio exceeded RMB4.93 trillion, an increase of 4.4% from the beginning of the year. Driven by liabilities and with solvency as the core indicator, the Company is committed to creating stable investment income through macroeconomic cycles to meet debt needs.
The medical and elderly care strategy continues to be implemented, creating a new engine for value growth
Ping An's medical and elderly care ecosystem not only creates independent direct value, but also creates huge indirect value, empowering the main financial business through differentiated "products + services". As of the end of March 2024, more than 63% of Ping An's nearly 234 million individual customers have also used the services provided by the medical and elderly care ecosystem, with an average of about 3.37 contracts and an average AUM of 57,600 yuan, which is 1.6 times and 3.6 times that of individual customers who do not use the services of the medical and elderly care ecosystem, respectively.
Effectively coordinate insurance and medical and pension services, and make significant progress in customer operation. In the first quarter of 2024, the Group had more than 45,000 paying corporate customers related to medical and elderly care, Ping An Health had nearly 40 million paying users in the past 12 months, Ping An achieved health insurance premium income of nearly RMB40 billion, and customers enjoying the rights and interests of medical and elderly care ecosystem services accounted for about 70% of the new business value of Ping An Life, an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2024, more than 10 million Ping An Life customers used the services provided by the medical and elderly care ecosystem, of which more than 60% of new contract customers used health services.
Integrate high-quality resources at home and abroad, and provide "online, store, home" network services. As of the end of March 2024, Ping An has a team of about 50,000 internal and external doctors, more than 36,000 cooperative hospitals, 100% of the top 100 hospitals and tertiary hospitals in China, more than 100,000 cooperative health management institutions, 231,000 cooperative pharmacies, nearly 1,000 more than the beginning of the year, and more than 37% of pharmacies nationwide, and home care services have covered 54 cities across the country, with a total of nearly 600 online services. Overseas, Ping An's cooperation network has covered 35 countries around the world and more than 1,300 overseas medical institutions, including 8 of the world's top 10 and 54 of the world's top 100.
We will continue to build leading scientific and technological capabilities and improve the service level of the main financial business. As of the end of March 2024, the Group has filed a total of 51,700 patent applications, ranking among the top international financial institutions. Ping An closely focuses on the transformation and upgrading needs of its main business, and uses technology to empower financial business to promote sales, improve efficiency and control risks. In the first quarter of 2024, Ping An's AI agent service volume was about 420 million, covering 80% of Ping An's total customer service, AI agent-driven product sales accounted for 58% of the total agent product sales scale, and the loss was reduced by 3 billion yuan through intelligent risk control.
Promote sustainable development and continue to deepen the practice of green finance. In the first quarter of 2024, Ping An Green Insurance's original insurance premium income was 10.682 billion yuan, and the "Three Villages Project" provided 2.677 billion yuan in rural industry assistance funds. In 2024, Ping An received a "low risk" rating of 17.0 from Morningstar's Sustainalytics ESG rating, ranking first among insurance companies in Chinese mainland.
Looking ahead, the fundamentals of China's economy continue to improve, and the economic recovery momentum is expected to continue to consolidate. Ping An will continue to maintain its strategic focus, deepen its main financial business, continue to deepen the two-wheel parallel and technology-driven strategy of "comprehensive finance + medical care for the elderly", cultivate internal skills, continue to improve the level of operation and management, solidly promote the recovery and growth of business performance, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of financial services for the real economy, and contribute to the construction of a financial power and the great cause of national rejuvenation.
Written by: Ken Tian
Editor: Yuan Biao
Review: Wang Wei Gu Jun
Proofreading: Rui Tianshu
![The beginning of summer is coming, eat these 5 dishes, nutritious, delicious and nourishing, healthy and safe summer[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)