HK/China Banks 03.12.10 $ICBC

HK/China Banks

Daily News Highlights
•China Citic Bank to issue bonds in 1H10 — China Citic Bank said it plans to issue 15-year HK$25 billion subordinated bonds or hybrid bonds in the first half. (HKET)

• China PBOC Governor: February CPI Within Expectation — The PBOC Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said China's February consumer price index was within the central bank's expectation, the state-run Securities Journal reported Friday. China said Thursday its CPI rose 2.7% in February from a year earlier, the fastest rise in more than a year and quickening from January's 1.5% rise. It was also above the median forecast of a 2.4% rise in a Dow Jones Newswire poll of 11 economists. (Dow Jones)

• China February loan growth slowed — China February made Rmb700bn yuan loans, down 50% mom. Its outstanding loan amounted to Rmb42.07tr, up by 27.23% yoy; and total deposit went up by Rmb958.9bn, or 24.97% yoy, to RmbRmb62.25tr at the end of last month. (Hexun)

• Shenzhen Development Bank's profit soars — SDB's net profit for 2009 was Rmb5.03bn, more than eight times the year-earlier level, due to lower provisions for bad loans, rapid lending growth and higher fee income. Its NII rose 3% to Rmb13bn last year. As of Dec. 31, its NPL ratio stood at 0.68%,
unchanged from a year earlier. The bank's CAR rose to 8.88% at the end of 2009 from 8.58% at the end of 2008. (WSJ)

• Chinese Banks said March lending at stable pace — Guo Shuqing, Chairman of CCB expects March lending will be on par with normal years. Mr. Guo also said that he was not surprised to see a 50% mom drop for February loans. Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of ICBC also said that lending did not contract sharply in the first half of March but was made at a stable pace. (Hexun)

• Agriculture Bank of China plans to make Rmb740bn new loans — ABC Chairman Xiang Juan Bo said his bank plans to grow its loan book by Rmb740bn. 35% of the bank's new loans or Rmb260bn will be given to the Triple-Agriculture Business (Agriculture, Farmers and Countryside), Mr. Xiang
said. (Hexun)

• BOC aims to issue new HK shares soon and is not interested in acquisitions — Xiao Gang, Chairman of BOC said that the sooner his bank is able to raise capital in HK stock bourse this year, the better. Xiao also said that the bank is not interested in acquisitions although it wants to grow aggressively overseas. (Hexun)


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