China CITIC Bank reports 2007 net profit more than doubles

China CITIC Bank, the nation's seventh largest lender, said its net profit more than doubled last year, powered by a jump in interest and fee income.

Net profit rose to 8.29 billion yuan (1.17 billion U.S. dollars) from 3.73 billion yuan last year, the Beijing-based bank said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Per-share earnings rose to 0.23 yuan from 0.12 yuan in 2006.

Operating revenue surged 56.1 percent from a year earlier to 27.8 billion yuan in 2007, it said.

Net interest income rose 58.9 percent to 26.2 billion yuan last year on increasing outstanding loans. The bank reported outstanding loans of 575.2 billion yuan by the end of last year, compared with 463.2 billion yuan a year earlier. Its non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.48 percent.

Fee income almost tripled to 2.1 billion yuan from 759 million yuan in 2006, helped by the bank's expanding wealth management and credit card business.

CITIC Bank said it planned to increase its outstanding loans to675 billion yuan this year but would control the lending pace according to the country's monetary policy.

It would also boost cooperation with strategic investors in personal banking, auto financing and risk control.

CITIC bank raised 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in April through simultaneous initial public offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria currently held 4.83 percent of the bank.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2008)