China Minsheng Banking Corp, one of the country's leading joint-stock banks, reported a 37 percent jump in net profits in the first half of the year, fuelled by its fast growing loans business.

 

Net income in the six months rose to 1.7 billion yuan (US$212 million) from 1.3 billion yuan (US$162.5 million) a year ago. And revenue gained 27 percent to 14.2 billion yuan (US$1.78 billion), the Beijing-based lender said in a statement to the Shanghai bourse yesterday.

 

"Minsheng's performance has beaten my expectations," He Yuanyuan, a senior analyst with China CITIC Securities, told China Daily, adding she had expected the bank's net profit to reach 3.3 billion yuan (US$412.5 million) for the whole year.

 

"Fast growing loans and the rising interest rate contribute to this strong growth in net profits," she added.

 

Minsheng bank has seen its loan expansion average about 60 percent a year since 2001.

 

Meanwhile the central bank raised benchmark lending rates by 27 basis points in late April and another rate hike is expected in the near future.

 

However, it is impossible to maintain such a rapid growth rate in the following years, said He. "Maintaining a comparatively high return when the growth begins to slow down is the major challenge facing the bank now."

 

Minsheng bank expected full-year profit to grow 23 percent to 3.33 billion yuan (US$412.5 million) in 2006 and its outstanding loans to expand by a quarter to 475 billion yuan (US$59.3 billion).

 

(China Daily July 19, 2006)