China Pacific Insurance Company profits surge in 2018

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd's (CPIC) net profits increased 22.9 percent year-on-year to 18.019 billion yuan ($2.68 billion) in 2018, the company said in a statement Sunday.

The company, one of China's largest insurance groups, said its operating income last year reached 354.363 billion yuan.

Of that, the company's gross written premiums of insurance contracts accounted for 321.895 billion yuan, an increase of 14.3 percent on the previous year.

According to the annual report, the growth can be attributed to an increase in new business sectors in life insurance, which surged to 27.12 billion yuan.

CPIC has developed a of range of licenses including life insurance, property and casualty insurance, pensions, health insurance, agriculture insurance and asset management over the last three years.

Among these, CPIC's lead on property insurance has strengthened, with income increasing by 12.6 percent year-on-year to 119.218 billion yuan.

Emerging industry agricultural insurance recorded an original premium income of 4.998 billion yuan.

In 2018 CPIC's assets under management reached 1703.526 billion yuan, an increase of 20.1 percent compared with 2017.

Although total investment yield was 4.6 percent, down 0.8 percent annually, net value was 5.1 percent, up 0.3 percent.

By the end of 2018 CPIC's customers numbered 124.42 million, an increase of 10.89 million on 2017, according to the report.

Zhang Hanzhi contributed to this story.