Sicher /dabeisein -- IND BANK OF CHINA A0LB42

ICBC Down In HK But Ignores Provision News

ICBC (1398.HK) down  while HSI down 1.8%,

mostly ignoring news it has raised provisions to 30% of US$1.2 billion subprime assets, translating into CNY2.59 billion vs CNY1.62 billion provision at end-September.

Kim Eng says ICBC earlier guided for 60% on-year increase in FY07 net profit, implying earnings of at least CNY78 billion; "any further provisions in FY08 should be insignificant compared to the bank's profit."

Adds China's largest bank trading at 15X FY08 earnings, 3.1X book value; with stock falling 40% from peak,

may have short-term rebound but prefers mid-sized banks like CMB (3968.HK), BoCom (3328 HK)  

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Ltd said its net profit rose 29 pct year-on-year to 1.61 bln hkd in 2007 on the back of rising net interest income and net fee income.

Net interest income for the period rose 29 pct to 2.39 bln hkd, due mainly to the strong growth in its loan portfolio during 2007 as well as the slight improvement of its overall net interest margin from 1.45 pct to 1.47 pct, the bank said in a statement.

Net fee and commission income increased by 20 pct to 676 mln hkd due to a strong stockbroking business, it added.

With effective cost controls, the bank's cost-to-income ratio also improved to 35.6 pct from 36.4 pct a year earlier.

Its consolidated impairment losses were down by 3 pct to 134 mln last year, while impairment losses on available-for-sale financial investments reached 252 mln hkd in 2007, of which 234 mln hkd was an impairment loss on notes issued by a structured investment vehicle (SIV).

The bank declared a final dividend of 0.63 hkd, up from 0.46 a year earlier.  

ICBC +6.1%; FY07 Profit Likley +63% - Kim Eng

ICBC (1398.HK) +6.1% at HK$5.08 ahead of FY07 results after market close.

Kim Eng forecasts net profit likely +63% on-year at CNY80.2 billion, mostly in line with CNY80.5 billion pegged by Thomson.

Unlikely much surprise in terms of bottom-line figure as ICBC itself had tipped earnings to rise more than 60%. Kim Eng says ICBC's exposure to subprime-related assets around CNY8.6 billion, bank has already made CNY1.6 billion of provision; bigger provision in 4Q07 widely expected, but provision "could be quite insignificant" vs bottom-line.

Adds ICBC trades at 13X FY08 P/E, 2.7X P/B before today's jump. Stock is 6th most heavily traded with HK$1.16 billion.  

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world's biggest by market value, boosted second- half profit by 70 percent, while earnings growth at Bank of China Ltd. slowed on $1.3 billion of subprime writedowns.

ICBC's net income jumped to 40.48 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) from a year earlier. Bank of China had a 14 percent increase, to 26.7 billion yuan. Earnings were derived from full- year results released by the banks in Beijing today.  

Hong Kong-listed Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), the mainland's largest bank, said its net profit in 2007 grew 65 percent on rising interest income and increased fees.

Net profit rose to 81.5 billion yuan from 49.3 billion yuan in 2006, ICBC said in a statement.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting, on average, net profit of 87.7 billion yuan.

Higher demand for loans and financial services due to China's booming economy bolstered ICBC's income, said analysts. China's economy expanded 11.4 percent in 2007, the fastest in 13 years.

The bank, which operates over 17,000 branches within and outside the mainland, said net interest income reached 224.5 billion yuan, up 37 percent from 163.5 billion yuan in 2006. Net fee and commission income more than doubled to 34.4 billion yuan, the bank said.

Net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, grew to 2.8 percent at the end of 2007 from 2.4 percent a year earlier, helped by six interest rate hikes in China last year.

China hiked interest rates six times in 2007 to curb rising inflation. It also raised the bank reserve requirement, or the amount of cash banks need to set aside as reserves, to limit bank loans in a bid to cool the economy.



Further tightening



Further monetary tightening on the mainland could weigh on bank results this year, analysts said.

""We expect bank performance to be challenged by government tightening measures in the coming couple of months,"" Deutsche Bank analyst Krista Yue said in a note before the results release.

The investment bank forecasts loan growth will slow to 14 percent this year from about 16 percent last year.

ICBC's ratio of non-performing loans to total loans fell by more than a percentage point to 2.74 percent at the end of 2007.

ICBC said it held US sub-prime residential mortgage-backed securities of 1.2 billion US dollars as of end-2007, and 55 million dollars in structured investment vehicles. It has so far made an allowance for impairment losses of 400 million dollars for the securities.

The bank does not hold any collaterized debt obligations related to US subprime mortgages.

Deutsche Bank's Yue said further credit tightening in the mainland will likely weigh on the stock performance of most mainland banks. But ICBC is Deutsche Bank's top pick among mainland lenders ""due to its leading customer and deposit franchise, lower reliance on loan growth and cost efficiency,"" said Yue.

Shares of ICBC advanced 8.6 percent on Tuesday to 5.20 Hong Kong dollars in line with the gains on the broader market. The Hang Seng Index closed up 1,356.30 points or 6.4 percent at 22,464.52.  

Finde die nirgends außer an der NASDAQ OTC gelistet.
Welche ISIN/WKN haben die denn jetzt, weil die alte WKN wird nicht mehr gehandelt.

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ICBC: impact of U.S. subprime crisis on Chinese banks overestimated
The direct losses of Chinese banks from the U.S. subprime crisis were not especially large in the amount, Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the ICBC, said Saturday.