China Everbright Bank, one of the dozen Chinese publically traded Chinese banks, raked in 1.15 billion yuan (about US$139 million) in pre-tax profits in 2004, 337 million yuan (US$40.7 million) more than 2003, a bank spokesman said Friday.

Everbright had improved its business structure, the bank spokesman acknowledged. The bank expanded its business at a time when China was curbing lending to overheated industries in an effort to cool down the economy.

It took the lead in domestic banks last year selling a large amount of yuan- and foreign currency-denominated financing products, which allow investors to earn more than interest rate income from banks.

The bank's outstanding loans had reached 267.9 billion yuan (US$32.4 billion) at the year's end, 10.9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) more than a year earlier.

This brought the bank's total assets to 438.9 billion yuan (about US$53 billion) at the end of last year, an annual increase of 44.5 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion) from the beginning of 2004.

Outstanding deposits also increased by 41.5 billion yuan (US$5 billion) at the start of 2004 to 385.3 billion yuan (US$46.5 billion) by the end of the year, the bank spokesman said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2005)