Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd.

Ping An Insurance Group is a Chinese financial conglomerate with banking, asset management and other units. It has nearly 90 million customers. Ping An was established in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, in 1988 as China's first joint-stock insurance company. It entered the banking business in 2006 when it purchased a bank in the city and renamed it Ping An Bank.

The company has 236,000 employees and 635,000 insurance agents. Many of the types of policies it promotes have not entered the mainstream in China. It ranks second in both the life and nonlife insurance markets in terms of premium revenues.

One of Ping An's key strengths is its ability to comprehensively offer a range of financial services, including insurance, banking, trust, securities, futures and asset management.

Ping An stands out among Chinese financial institutions for its aggressive acceptance of foreign capital. HSBC of the U.K. became its single largest shareholder in 2002. HSBC later sold its stake under a new management policy, making Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group the biggest investor. Other shareholders include Tamasek Holdings, an investment company owned by the government of Singapore.