China’s state-owned PICC Group, the People’s Insurance Company of China, is looking at opening an internet finance service company in 2015 in a bid to boost sales as well as expand integration with other internet finance first movers such as Alibaba and Tencent, the company’s top executives said on Monday.
“A total of one billion yuan (HK$ 1.21 billion) worth of premiums was written from its mobile terminals in the first six months of this year, indicating a booming development of the internet finance industry as well as the huge potential,” said Wang He, executive director of PICC Property and Casualty, a Hong Kong listed subsidiary of the group company.
PICC has made attempts to improve and expand its car insurance business by building a special internet of vehicles. The company is also involved in cooperating with Alibaba’s Ant Finance, as well as Tencent and JD.com. The company will announce a cooperation programme with Qihoo 360, the mainland based internet security provider, Wang added, without elaborating the details.
“We are using our capital strength to participate in the Internet finance tide,” he added.
The company also plans to set up a reinsurance company, a pension management company, as well as a third-party payment company in the second half of 2015.
PICC Group registered a record net profit of 18.03 billion yuan in the first six months, 94.9 per cent up year-on-year, thanks to growing sales, particularly from telemarketing and online sales channels. Total written premiums reached 231.47 billion, 11.6 per cent up year-on-year.