China Merchants Bank profit rises

China Merchants Bank, the mainland's sixth largest lender, said first half net profit jumped more than 120 percent, beating expectations. The bank's profit rose to 6.12 billion yuan (808 million dollar), boosted by rising non-interest income and loan growth, it said in a statement on August 09.
Market forecasts had been for a first half net profit of around 5.6 billion yuan. The bank said net interest income rose 55.9 percent year-on-year to 14.7 billion yuan, while non-interest net income was up 88.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.79 billion yuan. At the end of June, the bank had outstanding loans of 629.55 billion yuan, up 11.3 percent from the beginning of 2007, while outstanding deposits were at 844.57 billion yuan, up 9.2 percent.
The bank said non-performing loans (NPL) at the end of June totalled 10.42 billion yuan, down 1.59 billion yuan from the beginning of 2007, with the NPL ratio falling to 1.66 percent from 2.12 percent. The bank issued 4.16 million new credit cards in the first half, bringing its cards outstanding to 14.51 million.