China's Ping An Insurance confident in Fortis

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance (Group) Co China's second-largest life insurer, remains confident about its investment in Fortis despite a plunge in the Belgian-Dutch financial group's share price, an executive said on Wednesday.

Ping An (601318.SS), which owns 5 percent of Fortis (FOR.BR) (FOR.AS), needs a balanced global investment portfolio in order to spread risk and smooth yields, said Jin Shaoliang, who heads the board of directors' office.

"There's been a big drop in Fortis's share price recently, but we believe its financial operating capability and development potential are very strong and we are very confident in this investment," Jin told an online forum.

Ping An (2318.HK) agreed in March to pay 2.15 billion euros ($3.37 billion) for 50 percent of Fortis's asset management business.

The deal is awaiting final approval from the Chinese authorities, Sheng Ruisheng, Ping An's branding manager, said.

"We are unable to predict the regulator's attitude and the progress of the approval process," Sheng said.

He said Ping An had no plans to expand in Europe or the United States under its own name as they do not present as good an opportunity as the fast-growing domestic market. But the firm would seek more overseas investment opportunities as they arose.

Jin said Ping An would seriously study buying back its shares to take advantage of current weak markets.

Ping An has received regulatory approval to raise more than 100 billion yuan by selling new shares, but it has repeatedly said it has no timetable for the issuance.

Sheng said not raising funds in the next six months would not harm the company's immediate business development because it had penciled in deploying the proceeds over three to five years.

Ping An was still waiting approval to form a fund management firm, Jin said. Singapore's United Overseas Bank said in June it would have 25 percent of a planned joint venture with Ping An.

Because of the plunging domestic stock market, equities accounted for just 15.6 percent of Ping An's investment portfolio as of August 6; bonds and time deposits accounting for 64.2 percent and real estate 0.8 percent, Jin said.

He said China's efforts to cool the economy, along with the end of a lock-up period for previously non-tradable shares to come onto the market, would keep equity prices under pressure.

"Of course, a continued, significant stock market correction would put some pressure on our profit growth," he said.

Chairman Ma Mingzhe made the following points:

-- Ping An has no plans to list in London or New York.

-- It owns no Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bonds.

-- Net losses from a trio of natural disasters across China in the first half of the year will reach 784 million yuan. By the end of June, Ping An had already paid 317 million yuan in claims.

(Reporting by Langi Chiang; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Keiron Henderson)