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CITIC Bank Q3 net profit doubles
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-31 15:10

China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd said third quarter net profit rose 97.55 percent year-on-year to 4.034 billion yuan ($588.91 million) under Chinese accounting standards due to strong growth in net interest and fee income.

In its financial results filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the bank said operating revenue was 10.728 billion yuan, up 44.58 percent year-on-year.

Net interest income rose 35.99 percent year-on-year to 9.405 billion yuan, while net fee and commission income totaled 794 million yuan, up 76.84 percent.

Earnings per share stood at 0.10 yuan in the quarter, against 0.05 a year earlier.

In the first nine months of the year, operating revenue rose 60.52 percent year-on-year to 30.978 billion yuan.

Net interest income rose 52.06 percent year-on-year to 27.633 billion yuan, while net fee and commission income totaled 2.175 billion, up 106.36 percent.

Net profit in the nine months rose 137.3 percent to 12.451 billion yuan.

The bank noted that its effective income tax rate in the nine months fell significantly to 25.03 percent.

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Under international accounting standards, third quarter net profit was 4.044 billion yuan against 2.048 billion a year earlier, while net profit in the nine months was 12.473 billion yuan, up sharply from 5.271 billion.

Earnings per share stood at 0.32 yuan in the first nine months, up from 0.15 a year earlier.

At the end of September, the bank had outstanding loans of 652.02 billion yuan, up 13.35 percent from the beginning of the year, while outstanding deposits rose 9.6 percent to 862.81 billion yuan.

Non-performing loans (NPL) at the end of September totaled 8.965 billion yuan, up 473 million from the beginning of the year. However, the NPL ratio fell to 1.37 percent from 1.48 percent at end-2007.

"In view of the recent fluctuations in domestic and foreign economies and financial markets, the bank will pay close attention to loan quality," it said.

Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 14.66 percent at the end of September, down from 15.27 percent at the end of 2007, with core CAR at 12.88 percent, down from 13.14 percent.

At the end of September, the provision coverage ratio was 120.27 percent, up 10.26 percentage points from the beginning of the year.

The bank said it held $3.794 billion worth of foreign securities at the end of September, and noted that it had no investment in US subprime mortgage-backed securities.

However, the bank said it held $1.069 billion worth of residential mortgage backed securities issued by US mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as $151 million worth of debt issued by the two US firms.

The bank made impairment provision of $110 million for all its foreign currency securities investments, according to the statement.

No forecast for the rest of the year was given.

Hong Kong-listed CITIC International Financial Holdings and Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) hold 15 percent and 4.83 percent of the bank.

Earlier this month, the bank's board approved a stake increase by BBVA to 10.07 percent. The transaction is awaiting regulatory approval.


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