CHINA’S second-largest insurer by market value, Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China Ltd., is aiming for a possible fivefold increase in overseas investments and has not been put off Britain by its vote to leave the European Union, according to the Shenzhen-based group’s chief financial officer (CFO).

    Ping An plans to gradually increase its overseas investments to 5-10 percent of total insurance assets if it can find appropriate targets, CFO Jason Yao said.

    It currently invests about 2 percent of its total assets abroad, well below the 15 percent cap imposed by China’s insurance regulator, giving it ample room to splurge.

    “That could even happen in the next three to five years as the world is changing very fast,” Yao said, naming the United States, Britain and Europe as the key investment markets the company is targeting.

    Britain’s vote on the EU was not an issue, he said.

    “There will be investment opportunities in the U.K. ... Britain’s stock market and currency have gradually stabilized [since the vote]. We’ve been watching that very closely,” he said.

    Based on Ping An’s current insurance assets, the company’s total overseas investments could reach US$27.5 billion from about US$5.5 billion currently.

    Yao said possible investments included property, logistics-related real estate and private equity funds. Ping An bought London office property Tower Place for 327 million pounds (US$427 million) in January 2015 and Lloyds Building in the city’s financial district for 260 million pounds in July 2013.

    Ping An on Thursday posted an 18 percent rise in first-half net profit, led by a one-off gain in its Internet finance business.

    Yao said it was a “relatively big challenge” to stem the slide in investment income in the second half of this year, after investment returns fell 54 percent in the first half, hit by falling interest rates and the stock market downturn. That increases the impetus to diversify its asset allocation and expand its footprint abroad.

    (SD-Agencies)