BoComm 2007 profit up 65.2% on surging fee income

Bank of Communication Ltd (BoComm)<601328><3328>, partly owned by global lender HSBC Holdings Plc<5>, booked a 65.2% year-on-year rise in 2007 net profit to hit RMB 20.27 billion amid surging loan demand and fee income in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

BoComm's income from fees including selling credit cards and asset management products amounted to RMB 7.1 billion in 2007, up 137.2% from the previous year.

Its outstanding loan climbed 19% from a year earlier to RMB 1.1 trillion last year. To reduce its reliance on lending, BoComm launched a wholly owned leasing unit and a trust unit. It also completed its first acquisition to buy 10% of Changshu Rural Commercial Bank in eastern Jiangsu province, positioning itself the country's first listed bank to take stake in rural financial institution.

The Shanghai-based bank currently owns seven overseas subsidiaries, with a combined net up 10.09% to US$120 million in 2007. And the total assets of the overseas subsidiaries aggregated US$17.36 billion by the end of last year, up 20.38 over 2006.