China Insurance International Holdings, which holds a 50.05 per cent stake in Tai Ping Life Insurance, said net profit tripled to HK$1.55 billion last year from HK$510.8 million in 2006 on strong returns in stock investments both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Net investment income and net realised investment gains expanded 3.53 times to HK$6.17 billion from HK$1.75 billion a year earlier. Net unrealised investment gains totalled HK$505 million on December 31, compared with HK$634.8 million a year before.
Net profit contributed by Tai Ping Life, which sells the group's life insurance products, jumped 6.5 times to HK$1.02 billion from HK$156.6 million, also because of the premium income growth and higher returns from A shares.
Gross premiums written and policy fees increased by 44.9 per cent to HK$17.9 billion from HK$12.4 billion.
A final dividend of 10 HK cents was declared.
'The insurer benefited from robust stock markets last year, but uncertainty is hanging over [their results for this year] because of the lacklustre equity market's performance since the beginning of the year,' said Olive Xia, an analyst at Core Pacific-Yamaichi. She added that this was a challenge facing all insurers.
