China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd said its first-half net profit rose 162.6 percent from a year earlier to 8.42 billion yuan ($1.23 billion) under Chinese accounting standards, helped by strong growth in net interest and fee income.

In its interim report filed with the Shanghai bourse, the bank - which is listed both on the mainland and in Hong Kong - said operating revenue for the first six months was at 20.25 billion yuan, up 70.5 percent from a year ago.

The lender said last month that it expects its first-half net profit to be up over 150 percent.

Net interest income rose 61.9 percent year-on-year in the six months to June to 18.23 billion yuan, while net non-interest income totaled 2.02 billion yuan, up 224.6 percent.

At the end of June, the bank had outstanding loans of 551.76 billion yuan, up 10.55 percent from the end of 2007, while outstanding deposits rose 15.54 percent to 739.44 billion yuan.

Earnings per share stood at 0.22 yuan for the first half, against 0.09 yuan a year earlier.

Under international accounting standards, the bank's net profit rose to 8.43 billion yuan in the first half from 3.22 billion yuan a year earlier.

The bank said non-performing loans (NPLs) at the end of June totaled 9.2 billion yuan, with the NPL ratio falling to 1.45 percent from 1.48 percent.

Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 14.28 percent at the end of June, down from 15.27 percent at the end of 2007, with core CAR at 12.34 percent, down from 13.14 percent.