Ping An Insurance (Group) Company, a leading Chinese life insurers, saw its net profits soaring 79.3 percent to 5.99 billion yuan (US$777.9 million) last year, according to the company's annual report released on Thursday.

Ping An's returns on investment, including earnings from interests, amounted to 22.36 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) in 2006, a growth of 129 percent over the previous year. Its earnings per share stood at 0.81 yuan.

Earnings from its major business increased by 21.3 percent to 81.7 billion yuan (US$10.6 billion), including 69 billion yuan (US$9 billion) in premiums for life insurance, up 17.2 percent.

By the end of 2006, Ping An Insurance recorded 441.79 billion yuan (US$57.4 billion) in gross assets and 36.67 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion) in shareholders' equities.

Ma Mingzhe, chairman of the Ping An Insurance, said the company was planning to expand into the banking and assets management sectors.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2007)