2010-10-28 10:22

BEIJING - Bank of China, the country's third-largest commercial lender, said Wednesday that its net profit surged 27.48 percent to 82.96 billion yuan ($12.38 billion) in the first three quarters of this year.

Earnings per share stood at 0.31 yuan, up 0.07 yuan from a year earlier, the Beijing-based bank said in a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The bank attributed the profit jump to an increase in interest margins and growth in its non-interest businesses. Net interest margin was up 0.01 percentage points from a year earlier to 2.04 percent in the first three quarters.

Also, net interest income rose 21.79 percent to 140.8 billion yuan in the same period, while non-interest income grew 15.73 percent to 61.49 billion yuan, said the statement.

By the end of September, the bank's total assets stood at 10.1 trillion yuan, while the non-performing loan ratio was down 0.42 percentage points to 1.1 percent from the end of 2009, it said.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio was 11.73 percent by the end of the third quarter, up 0.59 percentage points from the end of last year.

Shares of the bank rose 0.28 percent to 3.52 yuan on Wednesday.