BEA to focus on mainland consumer lending, as 2017 profit up by more than 150 per cent
BEA’s profit upswing was related to ‘improvements in its asset quality and the bank’s net interest margin mildly expanding by 5 basis points, said one equity analyst
Bank of East Asia, the largest of Hong Kong’s remaining independent banks, said on Thursday its profit rose 151.1 per cent in 2017, beating analysts’ forecast, thanks to the sale of a number of assets in the first half of the year, and improving asset quality, especially in mainland China.
The bank’s management also said that this year they would look to start growing again on the mainland, particularly in consumer lending. Mainland China accounts for a larger proportion of BEA’s assets and revenues than it does for any other bank based outside the mainland, and losses on bad loans there forced the bank to take a conservative approach to growth in recent years.
BEA’s profit for 2017 was HK$9.35 billion (US$1.19 billion) compared with HK$3.72 billion in 2016, the bank said in a stock exchange filing.
A poll of analysts carried out by Thomson Reuters found an average profit forecast of HK$6.7 billion.
Excluding the benefit from the asset sales, BEA’s profit increased by 79.7 per cent last year to HK$6.37 billion.
