Ping An Insurance eyes more technology investment to spur cross-selling, counter coronavirus impact
- Ping An reports a 39 per cent jump in net profit to 149.41 billion for 2019, according to stock exchange filing
- Profit trails the consensus for 157.31 billion yuan in a survey of analysts; revenue rose 18 per cent to 1.27 trillion yuan
Ping An Insurance (Group), China's largest insurer by market value, plans to increase its investment in technology this year to mitigate the impact of coronavirus outbreak after posting a lower-than-expected earnings in 2019.
“This fight against the outbreak highlights the importance of technology to the transformation of the country and industries,” Peter Ma Mingzhe, founding chairman and chief executive, said in a stock exchange filing along with its financial results.
Ma said 900,000 life insurance customers renew their insurance policies online during the Lunar New Year holiday as the company’s online medical platform helped ease the pressure of front-line staff.
The data shows the importance of developing various online tools in the medical, banking and insurance sectors after the Chinese government to lock down many cities in the epicentre of central Hubei province, as well as restricting travels around the country to contain the biggest public health crisis since the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003.
Ping An is the world's seventh-largest company by capitalisation, according to Forbes. It is the only insurance company among the top 10 largest globally, with the nearest industry rival Allianz SE at 23rd in ranking.
