Top 10 China Insurance Companies
What is the top China Insurance company? These are not considered the top companies for nothing. It is because they are some of the biggest organizations not only in China, but in the entire world as well. With a huge share of the global premiums, we can say that the insurance industry in China has grown quite a lot in the last decade or so.
So fast is the growth of this industry in China such that experts predict that it will surpass that of the USA, which is the global leader currently, by 2029. Many factors contribute to this growth. One of them is government spending and investment in the industry. The growth of the economy has also brought about a good turn for the industry. Other factors include large consumer awareness on the need for insurance. With the economy growing every year, the demand for insurance products in this country can only go higher.
By 2017, the industry had underwritten $541.45 billion. Quite a growth there and headed higher. Here are the top 10 insurance companies driving this growth in China.
Here, we will review ten companies only. However, there are more than ten companies driving the insurance industry in China. Even the small ones will become the giants of the future.
1. 中国人寿 China Life Insurance (Group) Company
Topping our list is the China Life Insurance (Group) Company. You will see the reason why. First, this is a Fortune 500 company. It is also listed as one of the top 500 companies in China. For seven years following each other, this company has been ranked among the top 500 brands in the world.
To give you a scope of how big this company is, by 2019, this company had total assets of $515 billion. This is quite a growth as compared to the 2013 asset base of $54 billion. This company is also listed in New York and Hong Kong where it was listed at the same time in 2003.
It would later return to the domestic A share market in mainland China and would go on to become the largest listed life insurance company in the world. In the year 2016, this company would be listed at number 12 in the top 500 companies in China. In 2018, it was listed as The Best Life Insurance Company of the Year.
China Life Insurance was founded in 1949. It is 70% state-owned and its headquarters are in the city of Beijing. Its products are in life and health insurance and it serves the entire People’s Republic of China.
Official website: https://www.chinalife.com.cn/
2. 中国平安 PINGAN Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.
PINGAN Insurance Company of China, Ltd. Was founded more than 30 years ago. It offers different insurance products such as life and health insurance, asset management, fintech and health tech, banking and property and casualty. With such a wide portfolio, this company has really grown over the years.
By 2019, it was generating an annual revenue of more than $180 billion. It had total assets worth more than $1.17 trillion. The company is headquartered in Shenzhen. It is also listed as number 7 on the Forbes Global 2000. It was also listed on number 29 on the Fortune Global 500.
PINGAN offers a large portfolio of products and services. This alone makes it one of the largest financial companies in the world. By 2019, the company had 200 million retail customers and almost 600 million internet users.
This company is a publicly listed company. It has close to 190,000 employees. Initially, when the company was started, it offered casualty and property insurance products, but it would later diversify to offer five main products, including technology and financial products.
In 2004, PINGAN was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Today, this is one of the top 50 companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Official website: https://www.pingan.com/
3. 太平洋保险 CPIC CHINA PACIFIC INSURANCE (GROUP) CO., LTD.
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd. was established in 1991 to offer life and non-life insurance products. Today, it is the second largest insurance company in China. The largest one is People’s Insurance Company of China. It is also ranked as number 3 in the list of the top life insurance companies in China. Headquartered in Shanghai, this company offers diverse types of life insurance. It also offers different types of non-life insurance products.
This is a publicly traded company. It is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange for it’s A-shares. These are the shares that are traded in local currency. When the company was listed on the SSE, the IPO price per share was 30 Yuan. On the very first trading day, the share price closed at 48.17 Yuan.
This company has three subsidiaries – China Pacific Property Insurance Co., Ltd. and China Pacific Life Insurance Co., Ltd. It offers car insurance, accident insurance, health insurance, petty insurance, endowment insurance, injury insurance, liability insurance, family properties insurance and many others through its two insurance subsidiaries. However, it also offers asset management services through another subsidiary China Pacific Asset Management Co., Ltd.
Official website: http://www.cpic.com.cn/
4. 中国人民保险集团股份有限公司 PICC The People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited
Established in 1949 by China’s Government and housed in the China People’s Insurance Building in Beijing, this is one of the oldest insurance companies in China. Apart from offering insurance services and products, it also offers related services through its subsidiaries. These are PICC Asset Management, PICC Property and Casualty and PICC Life.
This company and the subsidiaries are listed on the stock exchange. By the end of 2018, PICC had total assets worth RMB 1032 billion and revenue of RMB 499 billion. While the company was started as a fully state-owned establishment, today, it is 61 percent state owned.
This company covers a wide scope of business that includes Huawen Holdings, PICC Assets, PICC Life Insurance, PICC Health, PICC Investment and many more. Their business also revolves around brokerage, funds, trusts and many others. Collectively, this wide coverage makes this company a far reaching provider of services in the world and at home.
This company has been listed in the Fortune Global 500 rankings. In 2016, it was ranked at number 24 in the list of the top 500 companies in China and in 2018, it was placed at position 117 in the Fortune Global 500 Global List.
Official website: https://www.picc.com/
5. 新华保险 NCI NEW CHINA LIFE INSURANCE CO., LTD
The New China Insurance Co., Ltd. is also called New China Insurance. It has its headquarters in Beijing and it was established by the government in 1996 to offer life insurance products. By the time of founding, the Chinese government owned more than 50 percent of the shares.
This insurance company was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2011. Two years later in 2013, the company would go ahead to attain a business income of RMB 103.6 billion. In the same year, the total assets of the company reached an impressive RMB565.5 billion.
The company has been listed in different categories. For example, in 2016, it was ranked at position 427 in the Fortune Global 500 2016 and Forbes Global 2000 listed the company at position 297. And that is not all because New China Insurance has also been listed in other rankings such as Number 102 In China Top 500 Enterprises in 2016. In the same year, NCI was the winner of the Best Technology Insurance Company Award.
Official Website: https://www.newchinalife.com/
6. 泰康保险 Taikang Insurance Group INC.
Taikang Insurance Group INC. is a top China insurance company. With the Bank Of China’s approval, this life insurance company was established in 1996. Since then , it has grown in different ways and widened its portfolio of projects.
Today, it has subsidiaries such as Taikang Asset Management, Taikang Life and Taikang Health and Elderly Care. The company headquarters are in Beijing. Goldman Sachs Group acquired 12.02 percent stake in the company in 2011 offering foreign fundraising. This also makes Goldman Sachs the second biggest shareholder in Taikang Insurance Group INC.
In the list of 2016 China Top 500 Enterprises, Taikang Life Insurance was ranked at number 114 and in 2018, It would go ahead to win an award for 2018 Top Financial List Selection, The Best Life Insurance Company of the Year. In the same year, 2018, Taikang Life Insurance went ahead and acquired a 13.52% stake in Sotheby Auction thereby becoming its largest shareholder.
Among some of the areas that Taikang Insurance Group has been covering include health insurance, internet property insurance, medical pension, commercial real estate, enterprise annuity, health management and asset management. Today, it boasts more than 400,000 customers and over the time that it has been in operation, the company has provided more than 220 million customers with settled claims of more than 35 billion Yuan.
Official website: http://www.taikang.com/
7. 友邦保险 AIA Group Limited
Established way back in 1919 in Shanghai and later expanding to Hong Kong in 1931, AIA Group Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Insurance Assurance Co., Ltd. since its establishment, this company has been offering insurance products and services to both businesses and individuals.
Among some of its products include health insurance, savings plans, credit life, pension services, accident insurance and life insurance. By December 31 2019, the company had total assets of $284 billion. Today, the company is headquartered in Hong Kong. It serves a large base of customers all over Asia with more than 18 markets on the continent. It is also a publicly listed and traded company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
In 2013, this company received the Brand Of The Year Award from the Benchmark Magazine of Hong Kong. It has also won several awards for the best customer service and has been ranked in many listings.
Official website: https://www.aia.com.cn/
8. 中国太平 CHINA PACIFIC INSURANCE (GROUP) CO., LTD.
China Pacific Insurance Group Co., Ltd headquarters are in Shanghai. This company was established in 1991 on the back of the China Pacific Insurance Corporation. It offers life and non-life insurance products and services. The company is owned by the Central Government of China, Shanghai Government and China Securities Finance.
Among some of the non life insurance products that this company offers include property insurance, business insurance and short term casualty. It also offers asset management services and others.
Official website: http://www.cntaiping.com/
9. 阳光保险 Sunshine Insurance Group Company Limited
If you are looking for a property insurance provider for your needs, you have found it in the Sunshine Insurance Group Company Limited. This company was established in 2005 with about 36 branches and today, it has more than 600 branches with tens of thousands of customers.
In 2007, Sunshine Life Insurance was started to mainly engage in the business of offering life insurance products and services. It also offers health and accident insurance. Sunshine was placed at position 182 in the list of the Top 500 Chinese Enterprise for 2017. In the following year, it was ranked at position 176 in the Top 20 Chinese Enterprises in 2018.
Official website: https://www.sinosig.com/
10. 安邦保险集团股份有限公司 AN-BANG INSURANCE GROUP CO., LTD
This is a holding company in the People’s Republic of China with many subsidiaries that offer insurance, financial and banking services. Its headquarters are in Beijing. This company has been cited in the Financial Times as one of the most well connected companies in China, politically.
Since its establishment in 2004, AN-BANG Insurance Group has gone on to acquire other businesses. For example, in 2014, they bought the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel and in 2015, they bought VIVAT, a Dutch insurer and also acquired a 57.5% stake in Tongyang Life South Korea for $1 billion.
Today, collectively, this company has more than 30 million customers across the globe. China insurance industry would never be the same without the kind of contribution that AN-BANG makes both overseas and locally.
Official website: http://www.anbanggroup.com/
Conclusion
Your search for the best China insurance company should stop with these ten. They are the biggest players with subsidiaries locally and internationally. They have big registered capital, they offer different types of insurance products, have sound assets and all of them are listed in different stock exchanges.
