Citic Bank profit tops 4.2b yuan

China Citic Bank Corp, the country's seventh-largest lender, said first-quarter net profit was 4.2 billion yuan (HK$4.68 billion), driven by higher net interest income.

The bank did not give comparable figures as it listed in April last year and did not need to disclose earnings for the first quarter of last year.

However, the first-quarter profit, which represents 11 fen a share, has already surpassed the 3.22 billion yuan earnings in last year's first half.

Its net interest income in the quarter was 8.83 billion yuan, while net fee and commission income was 595 million yuan, the bank said.

Loans and advances amounted to 610.32 billion yuan, up 5.59 per cent from the end of last year. Impairment charges for customer loans totalled 295 million yuan. Customer deposits stood at 812.27 billion yuan at the end of last month, a 3.18 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

Citic Bank, part-owned by Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, raised US$5.4 billion from a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Its net profit rose more than 115 per cent to 8.32 billion yuan last year.