“Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest lender, posted better-than-estimated profit growth of 12 percent last year as an expansion of its lending margin outweighed an increase in bad loans.
Net income rose to 139.4 billion yuan ($22 billion), or 0.48 yuan a share, from a restated 124.3 billion yuan, or 0.43 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based lender said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange today. That beat the 132.6 billion-yuan average estimate of 31 analysts compiled by Bloomberg.
Bank of China and No. 3 lender Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (601288) join China Construction Bank Corp. (939), the second-largest, in reporting slower annual profit growth as the industry struggles to curb rising defaults after the world’s second-largest economy faltered. Chinese lenders’ profit growth may further slow in 2013, Agricultural Bank President Zhang Yun said today.
“The trend is very clear: the Chinese banks’ high growth rates of the past aren’t sustainable,” said Chen Xingyu, a Shanghai-based analyst at Phillip Securities Group. “If the market improves this year, then we may see a small rebound in their earnings.” ….”
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