HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Aug. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With sustained performance and growth, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) ranked 16th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list, climbing five places since last year. With revenue of USD191,509 million, the Group ranked 2nd among global financial enterprises, 5th among the shortlisted Chinese enterprises, and maintained 1st place among mixed-ownership Chinese enterprises.
The Fortune Global 500 list is regarded as the most authoritative ranking for the world's biggest listed companies, measured primarily by annual revenues and profits. Affected by COVID-19, total revenue of the 500 global listed companies this year was approximately USD31.7 trillion, a decrease of 5% year-on-year. However, the average revenue and profit of the Chinese companies on the list were at the same level as last year. The number of China (including Hong Kong) enterprises on the list increased by 11 companies from last year to 135 companies, the most of any country for the second consecutive year.
Despite the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, Ping An has continued to pursue steady progress by continuously advancing its "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" strategies. Ping An adheres to the philosophy of "expertise makes life simple, technology makes financial services heartwarming, and healthcare makes life better". Ping An is committed to serve the public and society by leveraging its fintech capabilities and its healthcare ecosystem. For the year ending 31 December 2020, Ping An's revenue amounted to RMB1,321,418 million. Net profit amounted to RMB159,359 million. Total assets amounted to RMB9,527,870 million. In 2020, Ping An served more than 218 million retail customers and more than 598 million internet users.
Ping An continues to pursue technology-powered reforms. Ping An Life used its technologies to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and established an industry-leading online operating model. Ping An Life also optimized product strategies, gathered customer resources and maintained customer stickiness. In 2020, Life & Health delivered an operating profit of RMB93,666 million, up 5.3% year-on-year. Ping An Property & Casualty further promoted its digital transformation, enhancing customer experience and improving operational efficiency. In 2020, Ping An Property & Casualty grew premium income by 5.5% year-on-year, with a combined ratio of 99.1%, indicating better-than-industry business quality. Ping An Bank also advanced its online digital operations and maintained stable business development. In 2020, Ping An Bank's revenue grew by 11.3% year-on-year to RMB153,542 million, and further strengthened provisions.
Ping An is also using technology to provide customer-centric financial services. Ping An continued to develop innovative technologies to improve customer experience, aiming to provide customers with high-quality financial products and other healthcare and technology services. Ping An Life pioneered Smart Advance Payment Services in insurance to relieve economic pressure on customers facing medical treatment expenses, making advance compensation payments of over RMB260 million in 2020. Ping An Property & Casualty launched One-click Claims Services for auto accidents, which have been used by over 2.34 million customers through the Ping An Auto Owner app. Ping An Bank launched the Smart Anti-fraud System (SAFE) for its retail business. The SAFE system has helped to avoid over RMB2.4 billion of losses from fraud attacks since its launch. In 2020, OneConnect established partnerships in 20 overseas countries and regions, and was committed to developing new infrastructure for financial services. OneConnect's virtual bank officially opened for business in Hong Kong in the year. In addition, OneConnect teamed up with China Merchants Port Group to develop smart ports and facilitate trade across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As of 31 December 2020, Ping An's technology patent applications increased by 10,029 from the beginning of 2020 to 31,412. In global patent application lists, Ping An ranked first in terms of fintech and digital healthcare and third in terms of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain.
Ping An also fulfilled its corporate social responsibilities by combating COVID-19 by various means, including donating supplies and cash exceeding RMB180 million in 2020. Ping An continued to implement the Ping An Rural Communities Support program, providing over RMB29,834 million in industrial poverty alleviation funds. The program has benefited an impoverished population of 730,000. Ping An helped build or upgrade 1,228 rural clinics, 1,054 rural schools, trained 11,843 village doctors and 14,110 village teachers. Meanwhile, the Group invested a cumulative total of over RMB5 trillion of financial resources, including insurance funds and bank credit, to support the real economy. Ping An also built the artificial intelligence Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (AI-ESG) smart management platform to enable responsible investments, and launched the Xinhua CN-ESG Evaluation System together with China Economic Information Service to establish ESG evaluation standards with Chinese characteristics. As of 31 December 2020, Ping An's responsible investment exceeded RMB1.03 trillion, fully supporting the development of real economy.
Other Chinese enterprises in the top 20 in the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list include State Grid Corporation of China (2nd), China National Petroleum (4th), Sinopec Group (5th), China State Construction Engineering (13th) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (20th).
About Ping An Group
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 220 million retail customers and 611 million internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An focuses on two over-arching domains of activity, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", covering the provision of financial and health care services through our integrated financial services platform and our ecosystems; in financial services, health care, auto services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" transformation strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ping An ranked 6th in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2021 and ranked 16th in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2021. Ping An also ranked 49th in the 2021 WPP Kantar Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list.
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