SHANGHAI: Agricultural Bank of China said Thursday its first-half net profit soared 45.4 percent from a year earlier on the back of higher income from lending, fees and commissions.
AgBank, China's largest rural bank by assets, said net profit rose to 66.68 billion yuan ($10.43 billion) in the six month period, from 45.86 billion yuan last year, according to a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a net profit of 67.52 billion yuan.
The bank, which last year raised more than $22 billion in one of the world's largest-ever initial public offerings, said net interest income rose nearly 30 percent to 144.73 billion yuan following a series of government rate hikes.
Net fee and commission income soared 65.4 percent to 37.14 billion yuan, it added.
AgBank president Zhang Yun said the lender improved its "credit management" in areas such as "government financing vehicles, real estate and industries with high energy consumption, high pollution or overcapacity".
As a result, its balance of non-performing loans fell by 10.36 billion yuan to 90.05 billion yuan during the six month period.
There has been growing concern about the exposure of Chinese banks to debt-laden local governments, which borrowed heavily through financing vehicles to fund infrastructure projects after the global financial crisis.
Yun said 90 percent of local government loans were "basically" covered by the bank's cash flow and the risks were "controllable".
AgBank claimed the title of the world's largest IPO last August after raising $22.1 billion dollars in a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai. US auto giant took the lender's place with a $23.7 billion listing in November.
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