Overseas operation boosts BOC profit

Bank of China Ltd saw a 20.3 percent year-on-year growth in pretax profit for its overseas business to $9.5 billion last year, the bank announced on Thursday.

Overseas business contributed nearly 30 percent to BOC group's profit and about 30 percent of its total assets. The net interest margin of this part of business increased by 13 basis points to 1.09 percent in 2017.

"Step by step, our overseas assets will account for 40 percent of the total assets of BOC Group, and the overseas profit will contribute 40 percent to the group's profit. We are heading in that direction," said Lin Jingzhen, executive vice-president of the bank, at a news conference in Beijing.

As of Thursday, Bank of China, the country's fourth largest commercial lender by assets, had expanded its global footprint to 54 countries and regions, including 23 economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We will further improve our overseas layout, with a plan to expand our banking institutions to around 60 countries and regions," Lin said.

BOC posted a 14.5 percent growth year-on-year in overseas deposits to $426.8 billion in 2017 and a 13.8 percent growth in overseas lending to $351.3 billion.

By the end of last year, the bank had followed more than 500 major projects related to the B&R initiative, which focuses on connectivity and cooperation among more than 60 countries and regions across Asia, Europe and Africa.

The bank granted credit worth about $100 billion to countries and regions related to the initiative from 2015 to 2017. During the same period, it issued three bonds for the initiative, raising the equivalent of $7.6 billion.

The bank has also restructured its branches in Malaysia and Thailand and will continue to promote regional integration in Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas in terms of assets, institutions and banking business, Lin said.

Chen Siqing, chairman of BOC, said: "We will optimize our assets ... reduce capital occupation and increase earnings from capital occupation by improving the role of technology, so that Bank of China will become a bank on track for high-quality development."

Last year, BOC achieved an after-tax profit attributable to equity holders of the bank of 172.41 billion yuan ($27.5 billion), up 4.76 percent year-on-year.