China’s Ping An Insurance plans more overseas investment in properties and logistic real estate

Ping An Insurance has set its sights on overseas properties, logistics-related real estate and listed companies that promise high returns as it looks to deepen its involvement in global markets, now that mainland insurance firms are being encouraged to venture out and put their huge capital reserves to good use.

The nation’s second-largest insurer now invests less than 2 per cent of its assets overseas, far below the 15 per cent allowed by mainland authorities, giving it plenty of scope to spend.

“We have just started investing overseas and foreign assets account for less than 2 per cent of our portfolio. This is far from the 15 per cent cap so that we have a lot of room for overseas investment. We however do not target to invest up to the cap,” Lee Yuansiong, executive director and chief insurance business officer of Ping An, told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview.

In 2012 Beijing announced it would allow insurance companies to invest up to 15 per cent of their assets overseas in a plan to encourage companies to seek growth beyond the domestic market.

Since then, Shenzhen-based Ping An joined hands with top rival China Life in May last year to fund part of a US$500 million commercial real-estate project to be built in Boston by US developer Tishman Speyer Properties.