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Minsheng Banking H1 net profit up 114%
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 16:29

China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd said first half net profit rose 114 percent year-on-year to 6.04 billion yuan ($880.58 million) on strong net interest income and fees, as well as a lower tax rate.

In its interim report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the bank said net interest income rose 45.84 percent year-on-year to 14.7 billion yuan, while net fee and commission income totaled 3.07 billion, up 211.88 percent.

At the end of June, the bank had outstanding loans of 612.05 billion yuan, up 10.29 percent from the end of 2007, while outstanding deposits rose 13.29 percent to 760.4 billion yuan.

Outstanding loans to the real estate sector stood at 87.82 billion yuan, accounting for 14 percent of the total, up from 13 percent at end-2007.

The bank said non-performing loans (NPL) at the end of June totaled 7.39 billion yuan, with the NPL ratio falling to 1.21 percent from 1.22 percent.

The capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 9.21 percent at the end of June, down from 10.73 percent at the end of 2007, with core CAR at 6.57 percent, down from 7.4 percent.

Provision coverage was 114.20 percent at the end of June, up 1.06 percentage points from the end of 2007.

Since the beginning of the year, the bank has been assessed the new corporate tax rate of 25 percent, down from 33 percent.

Earnings per share stood at 0.32 yuan, against 0.17 yuan a year earlier.

At the end of June, the bank had investments in government-backed bonds worth 46.45 billion yuan, it said.

Investment in central bank papers, bonds issued by policy banks and other financial institutions and subordinated bonds totaled 62.5 billion yuan at the end of June.

The bank said the face value of debt it holds involving US mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac amounted to $226.95 million at the end of June. It noted that all holdings of bonds issued by the two firms are rated AAA.  

In a separate statement, the bank said its board has approved the investment of 35 million yuan for a 35 percent stake in a new rural bank in Cixi in eastern China's Zhejiang province.


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