Ping An Ranks 242nd on Newly Announced “2012 Fortune Global 500” List
Hong Kong, Shanghai, 10 July 2012 - Internationally recognized "Fortune Global 500" released its 2012 ranking in the US on 9 July. Backed by its outstanding business performance, Ping An ranked 242nd, 86 places higher than last year, and continued to rank first among non-stated-owned Chinese enterprises. This is yet another international honor Ping An has received in 2012 following its inclusion in the top 100 in Forbes's "Global Listed Companies 2000".
"Global 500", as the US-based Fortune Magazine's highly renowned annual ranking is known in China, evaluates the 500 largest corporations in the world. The ranking measures companies primarily by their annual revenue and profit, and has become an authoritative reference around the world for the corporate influence, scale and the capabilities of a company.
According to the Company's 2011 annual report, Ping An's total assets amounted to RMB2,285.42 billion as at 31 December 2011, representing an increase of 95.1% as compared with the beginning of the year. Equity attributable to shareholders of the parent company was RMB130.867 billion, representing an increase of 16.8% as compared with the beginning of the year. Excluding the effects of the one-off-accounting treatment of RMB1.952 billion as a result of the consolidation of Shenzhen Development Bank's (SDB) financial statements in the third quarter, the Company realized net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of RMB21.427 billion for the year, representing an increase of 23.8% as compared with last year.
The year 2011 was also a significant year in terms of the development of Ping An's integrated financial businesses. The restructuring plan of SDB was officially launched upon approval by the relevant regulatory authorities. SDB and Ping An Bank commenced the integration of all of their businesses, which enhanced capability of Ping An's banking business and further optimized the Company's integrated financial structure. With the integration progressing smoothly, both Ping An Bank and SDB have also made remarkable achievements in developing their businesses, with combined net profit rising to RMB10.28 billion in 2011, representing an increase of 65% year-on-year.
As at 31 March 2012, the total assets of Ping An's banking business exceeded RMB1.3 trillion while deposits leaped past the RMB900 billion mark, representing an increase of 7.5% compared to the beginning of the year, a market-leading rate of growth. Ping An's investment business maintained its stable development trend. Ping An Trust operated its business in a steady manner, with tradable assets under management exceeding RMB280 billion. Ping An Securities' fixed income business successfully completed 10 bond offerings as lead underwriter, making it one of the top underwriters in the industry based on the number of deals. Fundraising activities for the third fund launched by Ping An-UOB Fund kicked off after receiving regulatory approval. In the first quarter of 2012, Ping An Asset Management (Hong Kong) launched three ETF funds listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, further enriching its asset management product line.
Besides achieving outstanding financial performance, Ping An has focused on enhancing its investment capabilities and customer services, and has also been active in fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities. In 2012, Ping An Property & Casualty has again upgraded its "rapid payment, easy claim and free road-side service". It has also launched new services such as "settlement for claims before car repairs", an innovation that revolutionizes the industry's claim process; committed to "finishing the entire claims process within the time limit" and "conciliation and mediation services"; and introduced the "caring service hotline" for cases that involve casualties, in addition to further expanding the scope of services of the "door-to-door claims delivery" service for door-to-door collection of claims materials. The Ping An "Low Carbon 100" programme has participated in the "Protect Mother River - Green Hope Project", and will kick off with plans to plant 10,000 "Ping An Forests" in 12 provinces across China, each covering approximately 1,000 acres. Approximately 100,000 trees of different kinds will be planted according to the different local ecological environments in each of the "Ping An Forests".
Apart from Ping An, 72 Chinese enterprises have made it on the "Fortune Global 500" list this year, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. The number of Chinese enterprises on the list surpassed that of Japanese enterprises for the first time.
