China's Ping An Insurance confident in Fortis

BEIJING, Aug 27 (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), 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.

"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 Shaoliang, who heads the board of directors' office, told an online forum.

Jin said Ping An needed a balanced global investment portfolio in order to spread risk and smooth yields.

"We consider Fortis a stable and ideal investment after comparing alternatives in Hong Kong, the United States and Europe," he said.

Chairman Ma Mingzhe said he expected net losses from a trio of natural disasters in the first half of the year to reach 784 million yuan.

By the end of June, Ping An (2318.HK) had already paid out on claims of 317 million yuan related to snow storms in February, May's Sichuan earthquake and severe floods in June across southern China, Ma told the forum.

"The three disasters have had a certain impact on our business, but it's still within a controllable range," he said.

Ping An on Aug. 15 reported net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.39 billion yuan ($347 million) in the three months ending June 30, compared with 3.95 billion yuan in the same period last year. (Reporting by Langi Chiang; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ken Wills)