SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Bank of Communications (BoCom) on Friday reported a 4.8% rise in first-half net profit despite what it referred to as the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.
Profit rose to 44.04 billion yuan ($6.42 billion) for the January to June period, up from 42.02 billion yuan a year earlier, the bank said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The results come amid a gloomy first half in which rising developer defaults dampened the property market as COVID shut-downs in some cities brought business to a halt.
The lender reported a 1.46% non-performing loan ratio at the end of the second quarter compared to 1.47% from the end of the previous quarter.
“Since the beginning of this year, under the context of changes unseen in a century intertwined with unprecedented pandemic outbreak, the complexity, severity and uncertainty encountered by the country’s economic environment have increased with more risks and challenges,” BoCom said in its statement.
The bank said its net interest margin – a key indicator of bank profitability – was 1.53% at the end of June compared with 1.56% at the end of March.
($1 = 6.8629 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Engen Tham and Ziyi TangEditing by David Goodman)
