China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd. on Tuesday announced first-half net profits up by 114.29 percent over the same period last year on strong commission charges and fee income.

The lender said in its half-year report net profit was 6.046 billion yuan (880.6 million US dollars), or 0.32 yuan per share.

Its commission charges and fees income surged to 3.072 billion yuan, representing an increase of 211.88 percent over the same period last year, which it said contributed the most to a hefty profit.

The business income stood at 17.67 billion yuan, up 6.38 billion yuan or 56.52 percent.

According to the report, Minsheng Banking also profited from expanding assets. Total assets increased by 15.48 percent, or 142.4 billion yuan, from the end of last year, to top 1 trillion yuan in the first half.

Outstanding loans stood at 612.05 billion yuan, up 10.29 percent from the end of last year, while outstanding deposits increased by 13.29 percent to 760.4 billion yuan.

Non-performing loans in the first half reached 7.39 billion yuan, and the non-performing loan ratio was 1.21 percent, down 0.01 percentage point from the end of last year.

The capital adequacy ratio was 9.21 percent at the end of June, down from 10.73 percent from the end of 2007.

The bank also said the value of debt it held involving US mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaled 226.95 million US dollars by the end of June.

The Shanghai-listed bank saw its shares rose 1.36 percent to close at 5.79 yuan on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2008)