China Life Insurance Company Limited, the country's biggest life insurer, said on Monday that its net profit surged 159.7 percent to 23.29 billion yuan (US$ 3.1 billion) in the first half of this year.

Its total revenue rose to 101.43 billion yuan (US$ 13.3 billion), representing a 39.6-percent increase from the same period of last year, the company said.

The insurer, which was listed in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York attributed the rise in revenue to a steady increase of insurance premium and policy management fees as well as higher returns on its investment.

The company's insurance premium and policy management fees amounted to 63.75 billion yuan (US$ 8.4 billion) by the end of June, up 16.8 percent from a year earlier, the company said in its interim results.

China Life said that its net investment return ratio stood at 3.36 percent in the first six months, an increase of 1.24 percentage points over the same period last year.

In the meantime, its gross investment return ratio was at 5.19 percent, up 1.9 percentage points year on year.

The company's share of the mainland life insurance market reached 46.86 percent under the Chinese accounting rules in the first half, up 1.59 percentage points over that at the end of 2006, and maintained its top ranking, it cited statistics of the country's insurance regulator as saying.

As of June 30, the company's earnings per share rose nearly 150 percent to 0.82 yuan (US$ 0.1) from the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28 2007)