Ping An Ranks Third Among Global Financial Services Companies in the 2018 "BrandZ(TM) Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands" List

Ping An Tops Global Insurance Brands for the Third Consecutive Year

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, May 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WPP, the world's largest communications services group, and Kantar Millward Brown have released the 2018 "BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands" list, in London. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx: 2318; SSE: 601318) has climbed 18 places to 43^rd, becoming one of the top 50 global brands, and the brand value soared by 51% to USD26.1 billion. Ping An ranked third among the global financial services companies and ranked as the top brand in the global insurance sector for the third consecutive year. Ping An ranked 7^th among all the listed Chinese enterprises.

"BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands" is one of the world's largest and most prestigious brand valuation reports. The brand valuation adopts a unique research method in the industry to combine the interview results of more than three million consumers worldwide with the analysis of financial and operating performance of various companies (according to the Kantar Consumer Index and Bloomberg's financial data).

The list featured, including Ping An, 14 Chinese brands, with brand value increasing 47% year-on-year, more than double the growth rate of the United States (23%). In addition, technology-related brands continue to dominate, and data-driven technologies such as artificial intelligence have enabled brands to rejuvenate.

According to the report, brands in the Chinese financial services, including Ping An, benefited from spending by China's growing middle-class and the funding needs of government initiatives. "Consumers view Ping An, with its broad range of financial services, as 'Meaningfully Different', this is why Ping An is the No. 1 most valuable insurance brand," says the report.

In addition, Ping An also outscores the average scores of insurance brands in each of its five components: Brand Purpose, Innovation, Communications, Experience, and Brand Love.

Ping An established a two-pronged strategy of "finance + technology" in 2017. The strategy helped Ping An increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve experience, enhance risk prevention and improve its service quality through innovation of products, services and technology. It also helped the Group continue to apply mature innovative technologies in increasingly diversified scenarios, to generate core technologies for output and continuously expand its scope of services as well as obtain asset-light revenue.

Since last year, with the core technologies of smart perception, AI, blockchain, cloud computing and security as the foundation, Ping An's subsidiaries have launched numerous technology innovation services, with three major scenarios including customers and users' health, travel and wealth. Leveraging Ping An's "Technological Innovation" and "Speed of Services", the Group provides users with smart services. For example, Ping An Property & Casualty debuted the "510 Ultra-speed On-Site City Inspection" and "One-click Arrangement" services in the global industry. A total of 95.4% on-site cases for auto insurance were handled within 10 minutes across the prefecture-level cities nationwide. Meanwhile, Ping An Life launched the "AI Customer Services" to intelligently identify customers and their needs, such as online applications for insurance claim settlements, insurance policy information confirmation and beneficiary changes, in order to effectively resolve the issues of slow authentication and settlement in traditional life insurance businesses. In 2017, Ping An's NPS (Net Promoter Score) increased by 28 pps to 36% when compared with its debut in 2014.

Thanks to the improvement of service quality and the application of innovative technologies, Ping An has maintained a rapid and healthy development over the years. According to the 2017 annual results announcement, Ping An's net profit amounted to RMB 99.978 billion, an increase of 38.2% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was RMB 89.088 billion. As of 31 December 2017, Ping An's market capitalization ranked first in global insurance companies.

Ping An commented, ranking as one of the top three global financial brands of BrandZ™ shows the recognition and encouragement by the organizers of the company's steady growth in brand value and performance, technological innovation strategy, continuous optimization of products and service quality. This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of the company. With the theme of "Embracing the Future with a Thankful Heart", Ping An has launched a number of activities to give back to society and customers. In the future, by seizing the opportunity of developments in smart technology, Ping An will continue to deepen the "finance + technology" and explore the strategic planning of "finance + ecosystem", leading its business transformation with technology, continue to optimize products and services experience, promote the steady growth of various businesses and make the lives of citizens better.

Besides Ping An, the other Chinese enterprises listed in the Top 100 include Tencent (ranked 5^th), Alibaba Group (ranked 9^th), China Mobile (ranked 21^st), ICBC (ranked 22^nd), Moutai (ranked 34^th), Baidu (ranked 41^st), Huawei (ranked 48^th), China Construction Bank (ranked 49^th), JD (ranked 59^th), Agricultural Bank of China (ranked 69^th), China Life (ranked 79^th), Bank of China (ranked 84^th) and SF Express (ranked 90^th).

About Ping An

As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") strives to become a world-leading technology-powered personal financial services group. Today, it is an integrated, compact, multi-functional financial services group with services that include insurance, banking, and investment. As of 31 March, 2018, the Group had over 173 million retail customers. At the end of March 2018, the Group's consolidated total assets reached RMB6.73 trillion. Ping An Life and Ping An Property & Casualty are both ranked as the second largest in China, and Ping An Annuity is the top-ranked in China in their respective areas by premium income.

Its subsidiary Ping An Bank is China's first joint stock bank. The Company's key areas of business include investment, with subsidiaries such as Ping An Trust, Ping An Securities and Ping An Asset Management. Furthermore, Ping An strives to develop internet finance, including Lufax, Ping An Good Doctor, OneConnect and Ping An Healthcare Technology. It has achieved significant growth in both the scale and user base of internet finance. As of 31 March, 2018, the number of internet users of the Company reached 459 million.

Ping An ranked 16^th in Forbes' 2017 Global 2000, and it ranked 39^th in Fortune Magazine's 2017 Global 500 Leading Companies. Ping An also ranked 43^rd in 2018 WPP Millward Brown's BrandZ^TM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.

For more information, please visit www.pingan.com.cn or http://t.sina.com.cn/pingan. 

SOURCE Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.

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