China Everbright Bank H1 profits surge 40%

BEIJING -- China Everbright Bank, a mid-sized lender, said Friday its net profits jumped 40.29 percent year-on-year to reach 12.94 billion yuan ($2.05 billion) for the first half.

The bank attributed the growth to its efforts to minimize the impact of the liberalization of interest rates, as well as government rate cuts, according to the bank's interim report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In the first half, the lender's operating revenues surged 32.93 percent to 30.48 billion yuan, the statement said.

By the end of June, the lender's capital adequacy ratio, which measures a bank's ability to deal with risk assets, stood at 11.15 percent, up 0.58 percentage points from the end of 2011.

Its core capital adequacy ratio rose 0.16 percentage points to 8.05 percent, the statement said.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio remained unchanged from the end of 2011, standing at 0.64 percent at the end of June, the statement said.