China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC) has said that an investment by Swiss Re has helped to optimise its ownership structure, after the reinsurer participated in CPIC’s recent listing on the London stock exchange (LSE).
Alongside the release of its H1 results, CPIC explained that the investment from Swiss Re had “laid a sound foundation for continuous enhancement of corporate governance.”
Swiss Re served as the cornerstone investor for CPIC’s global depository receipts (GDR) listing on the LSE, which made CPIC the first insurer to be simultaneously listed in Shanghai, Hong Kong and London.
The move came after Swiss Re confirmed in November that it was exploring an investment opportunity with CPIC following a partnership with the insurer earlier in the year.
“We achieved a milestone in the history of our development,” CPIC stated. “Our history over the past 30 years is compelling evidence of the importance of corporate governance as the bedrock of the development of a business enterprise.”
“The recent GDR issuance is another important step to enhance our corporate governance. It raised capital and, more importantly, it pooled talent.”
The comments came as CPIC reported a 12% slump in net profit over the first six months of 2020, moving from RMB 16.2 billion (USD 2.3 billion) in H1 2019 to RMB 14.2 billion (USD 2.1 billion) in H1 2020.
Breaking this figure down, profit for CPIC’s life segment decreased 17.2% to RMB 10.1 billion and profit for the property and casualty (P&C) segment decreased 5.2% to RMB 3.2 billion.
During the period, CPIC achieved steady growth of the life insurance residual margin, with improvement in new business value (NBV) margin of individual customer business.
And for P&C, the company reported rapid top-line growth, with continued enhancement of underwriting profitability.
“We delivered steady growth of business results,” said CPIC. “The board closely tracked the status of KPIs and led a broad-based effort to promote business development.”
“In the first half of the year, we achieved further growth of comprehensive strength, while maintaining an overall healthy momentum in the core business segments.”
