Banking News
- ICBC's fi rst-half profi t swells on loan demand
Date: 24-Aug-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
INDUSTRIAL & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest bank by market capitalization, posted a stronger-than-expected 61 percent jump in first-half profit Thursday, helped by widening interest margins and fee income growth.
Net income rose to 41 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion), or 0.12 yuan a share, from 25.4 billion yuan, or 0.10 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based bank said in a statement yesterday.
ICBC last week overtook Microsoft Corp. as the third-most valuable company, as investors bet China's economic growth will drive profit even as banks globally grapple with fallout from the U.S. subprime crisis. ICBC's Hong Kong stock trades at 22 times estimated earnings, against 12 times for Citigroup Inc.
The company released earnings after the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets closed. The stock rose 0.6 percent yesterday in Hong Kong and 0.4 percent in Shanghai, valuing ICBC at US$282 billion. Microsoft, the world's largest software company, is worth US$265 billion and New York-based Citigroup, until last month the biggest bank by market value, has a value of US$241 billion.
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