China's Pingan net profits plummet 42.7 pct for Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-04-26

The Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd., one of the country's largest insurers, posted a 42.7-percent fall in net profits for the first quarter of the year amid adversities triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company said its first-quarter net profits dropped to 26.06 billion yuan (about 3.67 billion U.S. dollars).

The shrinking profits came amid the coronavirus-induced unfavorable conditions, including difficulties in offline business operations, rising credit risks, volatile equity markets and falling market interest rates, it said.

Pingan has taken measures, including expanding online operations to mitigate the impact of the epidemic.

The company's retail customer base expanded, with 8.71 million new retail customers added from January to March, of whom, 34.7 percent came from online operations, which has brought its total retail customers up to 204 million.