Industrial Bank Co., a regional bank based in China's Fujian Province, reported a 75 percent on-year rise in pretax profit to 1.62 billion yuan in 2003, the Financial News reports.

The bank's total assets grew 37 percent on year to 243 billion yuan, with total outstanding loans rising to 164.6 billion yuan, up 71 percent from a year earlier, the report says. Total deposits rose 39 percent on year to 200.5 billion yuan.

Its non-performing loan ratio fell 1.08 percentage points within the 12-month period to 2.39 percent, based on the People's Bank of China's five-category classification system, the report says.

Industrial Bank, formerly known as Fujian Industrial Bank, is 34 percent owned by Fujian provincial government with Hang Seng Bank, a unit of HSBC Holdings PLC, holding a 15.98 percent stake.

(China Daily January 2, 2004)