China Life Insurance, the mainland's largest life insurer, posted a 72.2 percent jump in first-half earnings, boosted by strong premium growth and higher returns from investments.

 

China Life said on Tuesday for the six months ending on June 30, its net profit increased to 8.96 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) from 5.208 billion yuan (US$658 million) a year earlier.

 

The result beat analysts' forecasts of an average 8.4 billion yuan (US$1.06 billion).

 

Based on China's Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, China Life strengthened its market share by 5.33 percentage points to 49.4 percent from a year earlier.

 

"Our strong performance resulted from strengthening core businesses and appropriately diversifying operations," said Yang Chao, chairman of the company.

 

Supported by substantial growth in the life insurance sector, China Life reported 28.1 percent growth in its gross written premiums and policy fees to 54.58 billion yuan (US$6.9 billion) from a year ago.

 

Total revenue for the six months was 72.665 billion yuan (US$9.2 billion), up 47 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.

 

China Life also said net investment income climbed 45.5 percent to 11.341 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) from last year's 7.794 billion yuan (US$987 million).

 

The company attributed the rise in net investment income to the optimization in the debt-to-equity investment proportion. This effectively raised the investment yield to 4.24 percent for the first half.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2006)