Ping An Insurance net profit up 43% in 2017

BEIJING - Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. Tuesday announced that its net profit rose 42.8 percent year on year in 2017 to 89.1 billion yuan ($14.1 billion).

The life and health insurance boosted its new business embedded value by 32.6 percent year on year and increased its sales agent force by 24.8 percent to 1.4 million, according to a statement the insurer filed with Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Ping An Bank's retail business amounted for 44 percent of its revenue, up by 13.5 percentage points, and for 67.6 percent of its net profit, up 26.4 percentage points.

In terms of its core finance business, Ping An had a customer base of 166 million, up 26.4 percent from the start of the year.

The group board of directors proposed the payment of a 2017 final cash dividend of 1 yuan per share, and the total cash dividend for the year reached 1.5 yuan per share, doubled from a year ago.