China Everbright Bank profits surge 35%

BEIJING -- China Everbright Bank, a mid-sized lender, said Friday its net profits jumped 34.69 percent year on year to reach 19.06 billion yuan ($3.03 billion) for the first three quarters.

In the first nine months, the lender's operating revenues surged 31.04 percent to 44.38 billion yuan, while earnings per share stood at 0.47 yuan, according to the bank's quarterly report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

It attributed the robust growth to the steady expansion of its business scale, as well as the optimization of its business structure, the statement said, adding that medium-, small- and micro-sized enterprises, as well as retail services, also helped power its growth.

In the first three quarters, the bank's net interest income grew 30.87 percent year on year to 37.93 billion yuan, accounting for 85.47 percent of its business revenues, the statement said.

By the end of September, the lender's capital adequacy ratio, which measures a bank's ability to deal with risk assets, stood at 11.21 percent, up 0.64 percentage points from the end of 2011.

Its core capital adequacy ratio rose 0.35 percentage points to 8.24 percent, the statement said.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio came in at 0.7 percent at the end of September, the statement said.