Shares in China’s Taiping Insurance Holdings fell as much as 8 percent on Thursday (Nov 27) on concerns it may have exposed more than $200 million in coverage to a Hong Kong apartment complex that killed at least 55 people and left nearly 300 missing in a massive fire.
The tightly packed Wong Fook Court in the northern district of Tai Po, an Asian financial hub, has 2,000 apartments in eight blocks for more than 4,600 people in a city struggling with a chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Shares of state-owned China Taiping Insurance closed down 1.92%, leading the benchmark Hang Seng index to gain 0.1%. .thisrecovering losses of as much as 8.1% since October 24.
Publicly available minutes of Wang Fook Court’s registered owners meetings said members approved the continuation of insurance coverage for the housing complex with China Taiping Insurance (Hong Kong) in December 2024.
The policy period runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026, records show, with the insurance company facing up to HK$2 billion ($257 million) in compensation for damage to the complex’s exterior and public area.
The Hong Kong unit also provided insurance coverage to the contractor, Waqar Construction and Engineering Co., for the year-old renovation project, a separate publicly available project briefing document showed.
The policy, valid for three years from July 2024, covers “all risks” for the contractor with an aggregate indemnity of HK$365 million, plus “employee indemnity” of up to $200 million per program.
On Thursday, the government identified Waqar as the registered contractor for the building complex. Waqar did not respond to repeated calls from Reuters for comment.
China Taiping Insurance Holdings, which provides general insurance services from Marine Hill to Property, and its Hong Kong unit did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
A source with knowledge of the matter said the Hong Kong unit insured all risks related to the renovation project and provided coverage for contractors’ workers’ compensation.
The insurance company also covered Wang Fook Court’s owning corporation, property insurance, and third party liability insurance.
The fire could significantly hurt underwriting results for Hong Kong’s general insurance industry, analysts at Citigroup wrote on Thursday.
In 2023, property insurance gross premiums in Hong Kong stood at HK$15 billion ($1.93 billion), he said in a research note, citing data from the city’s insurance regulator.
In a statement, the Hong Kong Insurance Authority said its senior management is leading a task force working with relevant insurance companies to ensure the industry deploys adequate resources to handle inquiries and claims.
Officials said they had contained the flames in four of the seven affected blocks, with the rest under control after more than 24 hours of extinguishing the fire.
Police said the fire may have been caused by a “grossly negligent” construction firm using unsafe materials.
($1 = 7.7767 Hong Kong dollars)
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Photo: Firefighters try to put out flames that engulfed the building after a fire broke out at the residential estate Wong Fook Court in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chen Long He)
