China bank Bank of Communication’s half-yearly profit up 1.5 percent, bad debts grow

SHANGHAI China’s Bank of Communications Co Ltd, the country’s fifth-largest listed bank by assets, reported a 1.5 percent rise in first half net profit, even as its bad debts continued to rise.

BoCom on Thursday posted a net profit of 37.32 billion yuan ($11.09 billion) for the January-June period.

The first-half figure implies a net profit of 18.35 billion yuan in the second quarter, up 1.4 percent from the year-ago period, according to Reuters calculations.

Three analysts had on average forecast a profit of 18.2 billion yuan for the quarter, according to Starmine data.

BoCom’s non-performing loans stood at 50.15 billion yuan as of the end of June. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 1.35 percent at end-June compared to 1.3 percent at end-March.

(Reporting by Engen Tham in SHANGHAI- Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)