CEB Bank net profit up 30.61%

China Everbright Bank Co., Ltd. announced on Monday that its 2012 net profit rose 30.61 percent to 23.62 billion yuan (3.77 billion U.S. dollars) due to improved net interest margin and higher intermediary income. The business revenue of the mid-sized lender rose 30 percent year on year to 59.92 billion yuan, the CEB Bank said in a report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday. Net interest margin stood at 2.34 percent last year, compared with 2.3 percent in 2011. The bank's non-performing loans (NPL) increased by 1.89 billion yuan to 7.61 billion yuan last year, with a slightly higher NPL ratio of 0.74 percent, compared with 0.73 percent in 2011. Despite higher NPLs, the bank lowered its reserve ratio for potential losses in bad loans to 339.63 percent, down 27.37 percentage points from the previous year. The capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which measures the capital strength of a bank to its risks, stood at 10.99 percent at the end of last year, up 0.42 percentage points year on year. The bank's core CAR was 8 percent at the end of last year, up 0.11 percentage points as compared with 2011. Its total assets value hit 2.28 trillion yuan at the end of 2012, up 32 percent from 2011. Earnings per share stood at 0.58 yuan last year, compared with 0.45 yuan in 2011. The Beijing-headquartered bank said in its annual report that it is eyeing an increase of more than 15 percent in total asset value in 2013 and a loan growth of 11 percent. The CEB Bank said earlier in March that it sought to resume its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong by up to 12 billion H-shares after it withdrew the IPO plan in 2011 amid sluggish market sentiment and postponed the IPO again last year. The share price of the CEB Bank fell 1.24 percent to 3.18 yuan on Monday.