Ping An Insurance (Group), the country's second-largest insurer, plans to boost its investment in stocks and infrastructure after raising 38.9 billion yuan from its Shanghai listing on March 1, the company's chairman said yesterday.

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"We will gradually increase our investment into stocks and infrastructure projects, especially expressways and water plants," Ma Mingzhe told reporters on the sidelines of the annual session of the National Committee of the CPPCC.

China last year allowed insurers to start investing in infrastructure projects as a way to boost their investment returns. Ping An is among the first batch of insurers to run the pilot program.

"These projects must be long-term undertakings that can generate stable and robust cash flows," Ma said.

Despite the recent fluctuation in the stock market, Ma believed insurers' investment in the stock market is still safe because of the comparatively low proportion.

Statistics show that Ping An poured 15.2 billion yuan into the stock market in 2006, accounting for 5 per cent of its total capital, which is the ceiling established by the insurance regulator.

Ma also said that Ping An, which owns Ping An Bank and Shenzhen Commercial Bank, had no immediate plan to buy into another commercial bank. But he is considering establishing a fund management company, although there is no specific plan about how this would be done; the company could start from scratch or create it through merger and acquisition.

China has given insurers the go-ahead to branch out into other financial sectors, such as banking and securities, to help them become financial heavyweights. Ping An, 19.9-percent owned by HSBC, already has its own brokerage company, Ping An Securities.

(China Daily 03/06/2007 page14) 

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