Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., through its unit Ping An Asset Management Co. Ltd., has cumulatively acquired a 5.01% stake in HSBC Holdings Plc, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange regulatory filing.

The insurance group's asset management unit on Dec. 5 acquired 10 million HSBC shares, raising its stake in the U.K.-based banking group to 5.01% from 4.96%, Financial Times reported. The Chinese firm is now the second-largest shareholder in the U.K. lender, after U.S. asset management company BlackRock Inc., the FT added, citing Bloomberg data.

Ping An Insurance noted that it has cumulatively acquired 1,017,946,172 shares in HSBC through Stock Connect Southbound.

Based on current market prices, Ping An Insurance's investment in HSBC is worth about £7.3 billion, the FT noted.