ICBC says overseas assets exceed US$ 43 billion
2/9/2008 16:35
Overseas assets of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
reached US$43 billion by the end of June, up 22 percent, or US$7.8 billion, from
the end of 2007, an ICBC spokesman said today.
He said the rise in ICBC's
overseas assets largely resulted from a deal finished in March with South
Africa's Standard Bank.
ICBC, China's largest commercial bank, announced in
March that it had taken a 20-percent stake in Standard Bank, the largest
commercial bank in Africa, for US$5.46 billion.
The ICBC spokesman also
attributed the fast growth in overseas assets to the opportunity brought about
by the expansion of Chinese companies into overseas markets.
ICBC overseas
institutions had provided an international settlement service for Chinese
companies, involving a sum of US$97.3 billion, up 49.7 percent from the same
period last year. Of the total, international settlement on trade amounted to
US$23 billion, up by 96.5 percent.
The Chinese bank said its overseas
institutions posted a profit of US$240 million after deducting the provision for
bad debt in the first half, up by 42 percent over the same period last
year.
The non-performing loans ratio of its overseas institutions was 0.19
percent, down 0.15 percentage points from early this year.
The Standard Bank
posted a half yearly profit of almost 7.4 billion South African Rand (US$958
million), up 16 percent over the first half last year, according to the
ICBC.
The Chinese bank received a dividend of 588 million South African Rand
(US$37.3 million) from the Standard Bank in the first half.
The ICBC has 126
overseas branches in 15 countries and regions.
Xinhua
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