"The estimated improvement is made based on the fact that the development of the company's various businesses managed to keep the momentum (for profit to rise)," the bank said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, without giving more details.

Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities, says the growth "is within expectation as the bank is strong in the retail sector."

Earlier, Merchants Bank had expected a 40 percent rise in profit in 2006 of 5.25 billion yuan. The bank has averaged a 49 percent annual profit growth since 2000.

The bank is experiencing continued growth as it takes market share from the other four big state-owned lenders by targeting niche segments and offering new products like dual-currency credit cards.

The bank said earlier that it expected to issue more than 10 million credit cards at the end of 2006, double that of 2005.

The profit growth is a preliminary estimation and is not audited. Its official annual report for 2006 is scheduled to be out on April 13.

Shares of the lender ended at 16.48 yuan (US$2.11) in Shanghai yesterday, up 4.97 percent. Its A shares have gained 21 percent since 2006 as China mainland's stock market rebounded. Its H shares closed at HK$17.38 (US$2.23) in Hong Kong.

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