The story
Founded by The People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited in 2003.1
The People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) was established in 1949 and later renamed the People's Insurance Group of China. In July 2003, the People's Insurance Group founded the People's Property & Casualty Insurance Company of China (PICC P&C), with a registered capital of 12.25598 billion yuan. The company, registered in the People's Republic of China, inherited all the commercial assets, liabilities, and branches of the original People's Insurance Company of China, operating all insurance businesses except life insurance.
On November 6, 2003, PICC P&C was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is currently the largest non-life insurance company in mainland China, offering a variety of property insurance products to customers across different sectors. It is also one of the "Eight Banks and Five Insurances" among Hong Kong's Chinese-funded financial stocks.
PICC P&C became the insurance partner for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo. In 2008, its premium income exceeded 100 billion yuan, making it the first property insurance company in mainland China to achieve this milestone. It also entered the top 10 global property insurance companies by business volume. By 2012, its premium income exceeded 190 billion yuan, ranking first in Asia and second among single-brand property insurance companies worldwide.
In 2011, net profit grew by 51%, reaching 8.27 billion yuan, but no dividends were declared, and the results fell below expectations. Revenue increased by 12%, rising to 173.9 billion yuan.
In May 2013, PICC P&C announced a significant rights issue (A+H shares), issuing 418.17 million H shares (929.98 million A shares), representing 9.9% of the enlarged H share capital. The rights issue price for H shares was HK$5.38 (RMB 4.3), a 47% discount compared to the closing price on May 20, 2013, of HK$10.2. Combined with domestic shares, the total funds raised amounted to 7.257 billion yuan (5.763 billion yuan in RMB), which would be used to supplement capital and improve solvency. AIG, which held 31.92% of the H shares (1.213 billion H shares), committed to the rights issue. PICC Group also committed to participating in the subsidiary's rights issue plan, investing 3.999 billion yuan to fully subscribe to 930 million domestic shares.
On December 29, 2015, PICC P&C invested no more than 25.7 billion yuan in cash to acquire shares from Deutsche Bank (877 million shares), Sal. Oppenheim (267 million shares), and Deutsche Bank Luxembourg (922 million shares), totaling 2.136 billion shares of Huaxia Bank, representing approximately 19.99% of the bank's issued shares.
From Wikipedia’s article on PICC Property and Casualty, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4