China Minsheng Banking Corp., one of the country's 10 listed
commercial banks, has reported net profits up 47 percent
year-on-year to 1.11 billion yuan (US$144.2 million) in the first
quarter of the year.
The bank's earnings per share stood at 0.11 yuan, company
sources said on Saturday.
From January to March, the Shanghai-listed bank earned 4.55
billion yuan (US$591 million) in interest, up 39 percent on the
same period of last year. The growth rate was much higher than the
year-earlier level of 12 percent.
At the end of March, the midsized lender had 5.74 billion yuan
(US$746 million) of non-performing loans on its books, up 237
million yuan (US$31 million) from the level at the beginning of
this year. But its NPL ratio stood at 1.21 percent, down 0.02
percentage points.
At the end of the first quarter, higher profitability helped
boost China Minsheng Banking's gross assets 22 percent to 693
billion yuan (US$90 billion). Outstanding loans amounted to 474
billion yuan (US$62 billion), up 19.3 percent, and deposits 581
billion yuan (US$76 billion), up 17.8 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2007)
