CHINESE INSURER PING AN TO EXPAND BANKING & INVESTMENT BUSINESS

The Ping An Insurance Group of China (SEHK:2318, SSE:601318) plans to expand its banking and investment business to account for 50 per cent of its total business in four or five years, said Yao Bo, deputy general manager of the Ping An Group said on Tuesday.

Currently, Ping An's insurance business contributes over 60 per cent to the group's profits, while the banking and investment businesses separately contributed only over 10 per cent to the total profits.

According to Yao, Ping An will take eight or 10 years for its insurance, banking and investment businesses to respectively account for one-third of the total profits.

The Ping An Group was approved to acquired 379.58 million new shares placed by the Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB, SSZ:000001) to raise its stake in the bank to 29.9 9 per cent and become the its largest shareholder.

Yao said that the SDB would become an associate company of Ping An instead of a subsidiary.

The operation of the SDB in this year will not be completely incorporated in Ping An's financial report. Only the proportion of profit gained from the bank in line with Ping An's shareholding will be reflected in Ping An's financial reports.

The SDB announced on Tuesday that it will suspend trading since June 30 over plan of the bank's consolidation with the Ping An Bank, the banking arm of the Ping An Group.

Sun Jianyi, deputy general manager of the Ping An Group, said on Tuesday that the integration plan of the Ping An Bank and the SDB will be worked out under the guidance of regulators.