In its annual report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the lender, which successfully listed in Shanghai Stock Exchange last month, said its operating income in 2006 was 13.65 billion yuan, climbing 40.19 percent from 9.74 billion a year earlier.

At the end of 2006, the bank's outstanding loans stood at 324.51 billion yuan, up 33.78 percent from 242.57 billion at the end of 2005, while outstanding deposits were 423.2 billion yuan, up 19.14 percent from 355.22 billion yuan a year earlier.

Earnings per share stood at 0.95 yuan in 2006, against 0.62 yuan a year earlier.

Under international accounting standards, the bank posted operating income of 13.69 billion yuan, up 37.21 percent from 9.98 billion a year earlier, with net profit at 3.798 billion yuan, up 45.19 percent from 2.616 billion in 2005.

Non-performing loans (NPL) at the end of last year stood at 4.98 billion yuan, down 667 million from end-2005, with the NPL ratio falling to 1.53 percent from 2.33 percent.

Its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 8.71 percent against 8.13 percent at the end of 2005, with its core CAR at 4.80 percent, compared to 4.90 percent a year earlier.

The bank said it issued a total of 1.07 million credit cards at the end of 2006, with net additional cards issued totaling 676,300 last year.

In the report, the lender did not make any earnings forecast for this year but noted that it will maintain steady growth in all businesses.

Total assets of the bank stood at 617.7 billion yuan at the end of last year, up 30.02 percent from the end of 2005, and the lender said it aims to increase this by over 20 percent this year.

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