China's Ping An Insurance posts 48.9% rise in Q1 profit

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd saw a 48.9% rise in first-quarter net profit as its investment income improved, China's largest insurer by market value reported on Wednesday.

Profit rose to 38.4 billion yuan ($5.55 billion) for the January-March quarter, it said in a filing.

"The domestic economy continued to recover in the first three months of 2023, with household consumption picking up steadily," the company said in the filing.

"Global capital markets remained volatile in a complex international environment," it said.

The group's gross written premiums rose 2.1% to 133.1 billion yuan from the year before, while the number of retail customers rose 0.9% from a year earlier to 228.6 million.

The company booked 29.7 billion yuan investment income in the first quarter this year, compared with a loss of 26.1 billion yuan a year earlier, the filing showed.

The insurer is the largest shareholder of HSBC. The two firms have been engaged in a public battle since last November, when Ping An urged the bank to hive off its profitable Asia business to deliver better returns to shareholders.

The spat has become more heated in recent weeks ahead of HSBC's annual shareholder meeting on May 5.

($1 = 6.9242 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham, Editing by Louise Heavens)