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Industrial Bank net profit up 32% in 2008

By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-20 07:58

Industrial Bank, a joint stock commercial bank in Fujian, on Monday said full year net profit rose 32.34 percent to 11.36 billion yuan, while earnings per share (EPS) rose 29.71 percent to 2.27 yuan.

In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the bank said net asset value (NAV) per share at the end of 2008 was 9.8 yuan, up 25.96 percent from a year earlier.

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The bank's 2008 results trail the performance of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank which earlier posted a 127.53 percent jump in 2008 net profit. Pudong's EPS rose 127.53 percent to 2.21 yuan, while NAV grew 45.8 percent to 7.29 yuan.

Industrial Bank's shares rose 0.89 percent on Monday to close at 18.09 yuan. The share has soared 23.9 percent over the past two weeks.

Other banks that announced profit forecasts included Bank of Nanjing, which has projected a net profit growth of 70 percent for 2008 from the year earlier.

Some analysts partially attributed the profit growth to the fast increasing pace of new loans in 2008, especially in November and December.

Figures from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, show that as of December 2008, the outstanding renminbi loans rose by 18.76 percent to 30.3 trillion yuan.

But analysts also warned of the mounting pressure placed on bank earnings in 2009, arising from the narrowing interest rate spread, shrinking income from intermediary businesses and higher risks involved in overseas investment.

"The large or small lenders will inevitably face earnings pressure in the downward economic cycle," said Cai Rong, a banking industry analyst at China Everbright Securities Co in Shanghai. "The 2009 outlook for Chinese banking sector would be less optimistic, although Chinese commercial banks have outperformed their troubled foreign counterparts."