HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Dec. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) was recognized by the Hong Kong Institute of Directors with two Directors of The Year Awards this year. Dr. Ma Mingzhe, Chairman of the Group, received the individual award in the Listed Companies Executive Directors category for his leadership and commitment to enhancing Ping An's corporate governance. Ping An's Board of Directors won the Board award in the Listed Companies Boards category for its outstanding corporate governance.
This is Dr. Ma Mingzhe's third time winning the Directors of The Year Awards and Ping An's Board of Directors' fifth time to receive the honor.
The panel of judges commented: "Dr. Ma Mingzhe has always been visionary. He had the foresight to invest in technology early. He saw, before the rest of the traditional financial services industry, that the internet economy was affecting every aspect of people's lives and he seized the opportunity. He has adopted best global practices in corporate governance and risk management, resulting in a corporate culture that supports technology innovation, transparency, integrity, strong communication, and social responsibility."
The panel of judges also remarked: "Ping An's Board Diversity Policy has been enacted successfully to ensure a balance of Board members in terms of skills, experiences and diversified perspectives. This leads to elevating the efficiency and effectiveness of the Board, thus maintaining a high level of corporate governance. The percentage of independent non-executive directors (INEDs) is higher than the requirement of Listing Rules. Leading with strategic direction, the Board totally deserves the Award."
Ping An's Board of Directors focuses on the foresight, guidance and accuracy of the Company's strategy, prioritizes long-term and sustainable development and seizes captures development opportunities. Under the Group's "finance + technology" and "finance +ecosystem" strategies, Ping An has furthered its transformation toward smart, digital operations, focusing on "Pan Financial Assets" and "Pan Healthcare." In the first nine months of 2021, the operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rose 9.2% year on year to RMB118,737 million, which is equivalent to a 20.3% annualized operating return on equity. Retail customers increased 3.1% to over 225 million as of September 30, 2021. The Group acquired 25.25 million new retail customers in same period, 34.6% of whom were sourced from internet users within the Group. The total revenue of the technology business increased 12.6% year-on-year to RMB73,227 million.
Ping An also enhanced its healthcare ecosystem significantly. Nearly 62% of Ping An's retail customers used services from the healthcare ecosystem. Ping An Good Doctor provides patients with convenient and cost-effective healthcare services. Ping An HealthKonnect supports Healthcare Security Administrations with its Smart Social Health Insurance (SHI) Integrated Platform. Ping An Smart Healthcare empowered over 40,000 medical institutions and benefited approximately 950,000 doctors in 170 cities as of June 30, 2021.
In addition, Ping An integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) core philosophies and standards into its corporate governance and management. It has built a scientific, professional sustainability management framework to guide its business practices. The Board of Directors oversee all ESG issues to ensure a long-term, stable development of the business and greater sustainable value for the shareholders, investors and other stakeholders. The Group announced its Green Finance+ initiative to support the community. Ping An's green investment and green credit totaled RMB208,886 million and RMB53,278 million respectively as of September 30, 2021. Ping An's premium of green insurance totaled RMB25,109 million in the first nine months of 2021. In October 2021, Ping An announced its goal to achieve operational carbon neutrality in 2030.
The Directors of The Year Awards were launched by the Hong Kong Institute of Directors in 2001. The awards recognize outstanding boards and directors, and promote good corporate governance and director professionalism. The award criteria include effectiveness in pursuing strategic corporate business, contributions to board effectiveness, contributions in managing risk and succession, leadership and business ethics. Ping An's Board of Directors received Directors of the Year Awards in 2007, 2011, 2014 and 2019, and Dr. Ma received Directors of the Year Awards in 2015 and 2019.
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 225 million retail customers and nearly 634 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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