Despite becoming the largest shareholder in HSBC, Ping An Insurance has said that it will not exert its control in running the Hong Kong-British financial group.
Chen Xinying, deputy CEO, chief operating officer, and chief information officer of Ping An, said that Ping An’s holdings in HSBC are purely financial and that they have no intention of entering its management, The Paper reported.
With holdings of over 7%, which is worth HK$93.72 billion (US$11.97 billion), Ping An’s asset management arm recently surpassed BlackRock, which holds 6.6%, as the largest shareholder in HSBC. In December 2017, Ping An held just over 5% of the group.
With around US$6.3 trillion in assets under management, New York-based BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management firm.
According to Chen, as an insurance company, Ping An chose HSBC because it is a good environment for a long-term investment, due to stable dividends and good growth prospects.
HSBC’s annual dividend is at around 6% of its share price, making its stock attractive to investors, especially in the uncertain climate caused by trade tensions between the US and China, a report by SCMP said.
