Ping An launches $157m venture capital fund
Ping An Insurance, the world's second-largest life insurer by market value, has established a RMB1 billion ($157 million) venture capital fund. It will target sectors including financial services, consumer products, healthcare, automobiles and tech, media and telecom.
The majority of the fund corpus comes from Ping An's own balance sheet, but the insurer told local media that it may also invite third-party LPs to participate. It also plans to collaborate with other venture capital funds and angel investors.
The insurer was granted a regulatory license to raise private equity and real estate funds last September. At that time, insurers were allowed to invest up to 5% of their total assets in private equity and 10% in real estate. It was reported that Ping An might commit up to RMB110 billion ($17.2 billion) in the two asset classes.
The launch of Ping An Venture Capital Fund comes on the heels of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission's (CIRC) latest effort to diversify insurers' portfolios. Last week, it raised the permitted PE allocation to 10%, which is expected to see $50 billion of fresh capital injected into unlisted companies.
Shenzhen-headquartered Ping An reported a 2011 profit of RMB19.5 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year. Its two largest shareholders are both subsidiaries of HSBC, which hold 1.2 billion H-shares of Ping An, accounting for approximately 15.6% of total share capital.
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