Growth in H1 profit varies for ICBC, BOC

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation’s biggest, posted the slowest growth in first-half net profit in four years, while that for the Bank of China improved from a year ago, according to stock exchange filings yesterday.存倉ICBC posted a net income of 138.3 billion yuan (US$22.6 billion) for the first six months of the year, up 12.3 percent over the same period of last year.Its non-performing loan ratio improved from 0.94 percent at the end of last year to 0.87 percent at the end of June, while bad loans rose 7.2 billion yuan during the first half to 81.8 billion yuan.Minsheng Securities predicted ICBC’s net profit at 269.9 billion yuan for 2013.Meanwhile BOC, the country’s fourth-biggest lender, said its net earnings gained 12.9 percent year on year to 80.7 billion yuan in the first six months, a faster growth from 7.5迷你倉percent in the first half of 2012.Its NPLs rose from 65.4 billion yuan at the end of last year to 69.5 billion yuan at the end of June. The bank’s bad loan ratio eased by 0.02 percentage point during the January-June period to 0.93 percent.The brokerage predicted BOC’s net profit at 146.8 billion yuan for this year.“Rising credit costs, squeezed interest margins, and growing pressure on non-interest income are likely to constitute a triple hit to bank earnings,” Standard and Poor’s senior director Qiang Liao said in a report yesterday. “We think it is highly likely the banks could incur substantially higher credit losses in the coming years.”ICBC, China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China and the Bank of Communications all posted slower growth in net profit in the first half, except for BOC. 自存倉