(Yicai Global) Jan. 21 -- Ping An Insurance Group, China’s biggest insurer, has appointed the former chief investment officer at rival China Pacific Insurance Company as its new CIO to oversee CNY4 trillion (USD630.6 billion) of investment assets.

Benjamin Deng will replace Chen Dexian who is retiring, the Shenzhen-based company said yesterday. Deng will be responsible for investment strategies and operations, strategic and tactical allocation of assets, management of investment teams, and Ping An Insurance’s overall investment performance.

Chen will continue to serve as the director of Ping An Insurance’s Investment Management Committee to oversee mid-sized and backstage investment management, the firm added.

Deng worked at CPIC for three years and resigned last September for personal reasons. During his tenure, the insurer’s investment assets skyrocketed to CNY2.4 trillion at the end of 2020 from CNY1.7 trillion in late 2018. It reported a 5.4 percent return on investment in 2019, versus 5.9 percent in 2020, with a 10.1 percent return on equity investment, up 3.8 points from 2019.

Ping An Insurance had CNY10.08 trillion (USD1.6 trillion) in assets as of Sept. 30 last year, per the firm’s third-quarter earnings report. In the first nine months of 2022 its insurance capital portfolios rose about 3 percent to CNY3.9 trillion from a year earlier, while their annualized ROI was 3.7 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione