Industrial Bank Co, a Chinese lender backed by a unit of HSBC Holdings Plc, said that it will delay the release of its 2008 earnings report until the end of April while it discusses management pay issues.

The discussion is unlikely to affect net income, the Fuzhou-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The bank was due to report earnings after the close of trading on Shanghai's stock exchange Monday.

The Industrial Bank in January said in a preliminary statement that 2008 profit rose 31 percent last year to 11.4 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion), or 2.27 yuan a share, from 8.59 billion yuan, or 1.75 yuan a share, a year earlier.

Profit growth at the bank is slowing as China's economic expansion cooled to 9 percent last year, from 13 percent a year earlier, sapping demand for loans and other financial services. It posted a 126-percent jump in net income in 2007, Bloomberg News said.

Shares of the Industrial Bank rose 7 percent to 21.16 yuan in Shanghai yesterday.

(Shanghai Daily March 17, 2009)