A WIDENING interest spread and higher fee-based income have helped two listed city commercial banks post rosy first-quarter profit.
Bank of Nanjing Co, which is partly owned by France's BNP Paribas SA, said first-quarter profit surged to 410.3 million yuan (US$58.7 million), or 0.22 yuan a share, from 151 million yuan, or 0.13 yuan a share a year earlier, it said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.
Net interest income of the bank, based in neighboring Jiangsu Province, rose to 632.9 million yuan from 407.7 million yuan a year ago. Its net fee-based income more than doubled to 20.4 million yuan from 9.96 million yuan a year ago.
Bank of Beijing, another city commercial bank, said its net income climbed to 1.6 billion yuan from 550.6 million yuan a year ago in the first quarter. Its earnings per share rose 136 percent from a year earlier to 0.26 yuan.
The Beijing bank, China's biggest city commercial lender, plans to boost profit by 40 percent this year, President Yan Xiaoyan said last month.
"The stable lending growth, the increasing pricing capacity and a lower tax are the main reasons for Bank of Beijing'' to grow its profit, said Guosen Securities Co.
BNP Paribas owns 12.6 percent of Bank of Nanjing while International Finance Corp holds 3.3 percent. ING holds 12.06 percent of Bank of Beijing.
Bank of Beijing ended at 17.26 yuan yesterday in Shanghai, up 4.48 percent. Bank of Nanjing closed at 16.55 yuan, a rise of 2.48 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 4.82 percent to 3,693.11.