Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer by market value, reported a 36 per cent increase in interim profit, driven by stronger policy sales and investment gains, according to a stock exchange filing on Thursday. First-half net profit hit 92.59 billion yuan (US$13.78 billion) for the six months ended June 30, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of 84.45 billion yuan. The primary drivers of the performance were an increase in the sale of new policies and greater investment income, the company said. Ping An’s insurance funds investment portfolio grew 1.9 per cent in the first six months to 6.61 trillion yuan as of June 30, with a 4.8 per cent average net investment yield. The group’s asset management net profit jumped 209.4 per cent to 9.66 billion yuan in the first half. New business value (NBV) in the life and health insurance divisions – a key indicator of future earnings growth – rose 11.2 per cent to 24.85 billion yuan. Growth was supported by more products and a balanced sales channel, as the average NBV per agent in the first half rose 14 per cent, while sales through bancassurance partnerships rose 18 per cent. Operating profit attributable to shareholders reached 84.2 billion yuan, or 4.82 yuan per share, representing an 8.3 per cent increase year on year. “In the first half of 2026, the external environment remained complex and volatile amid a surging [artificial intelligence] revolution and accelerating changes unseen in a century,” said Peter Ma Mingzhe, Ping An chairman, in a filing with the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. “Yet China’s economy remained stable as the country achieved innovation-driven, high-quality development.” Founded three decades ago as a life insurance company, Ping An has developed into a financial conglomerate with property and casualty insurance, banking, asset management and healthcare. Ma said it was important to offer multiple products to increase client retention rate. The group’s banking arm earned 3.3 per cent more at 25.7 billion yuan. Ping An Health achieved 219 million yuan in net profit in the first half and served over 7,700 paying corporate clients as of June, the company said. Ma said healthcare continued to be a focus of expansion for the group owing to the country’s ageing population. This was offset by the group’s property and casualty insurance business, where net profit dropped 12.4 per cent to 8.8 billion yuan in the first half. The Shenzhen-based financial giant declared an interim dividend of 0.98 yuan per share, representing a 3.2 per cent increase from the 0.95 yuan dividend paid in the first half of 2025. The company’s total retail customer base expanded 0.9 per cent in the first six months to reach 253.14 million. Ping An shares lost 0.4 per cent to HK$54.10 on Thursday in Hong Kong before the results were announced. They have lost 16.9 per cent this year, underperforming the Hang Seng Index, which gained 0.3 per cent during the same period.