Merchants Bank net jumps 157 percent

    CHINA Merchants Bank, China’s sixth-largest lender, yesterday posted a 157 percent rise in its quarterly net profit due to net interest margin expansion.

    China Merchants Bank posted a profit of 6.3 billion yuan (US$901 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 2.46 billion yuan a year earlier, based on domestic accounting standards. The bank estimated previously that its net profit would surge at least 140 percent in the first quarter of this year. The Shenzhen-based bank also launched a leasing unit in Shanghai yesterday to offer aircraft and ship financing services. It invested 2 billion yuan and it is the fifth domestic bank to open this business on the mainland after Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and China Minsheng Banking Corp. started the leasing business last year.

    China COSCO profit more than doubles

    CHINA COSCO Holdings Co., the world’s second-largest shipping company by market value, said yesterday its 2007 earnings more than doubled, buoyed by a strong contribution from its dry bulk cargo fleet.

    China COSCO said it planned to further expand its fleet by ordering US$2.3 billion worth of new ships, including eight container ships of 13,350 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU) each and 17 dry bulk cargo ships. The purchase of the parent’s dry-bulk shipping business for nearly 34.61 billion yuan (US$4.95 billion) late last year should also benefit the company in the midst a prolonged recovery in the container shipping industry this year, analysts said. The company posted net profit of 19.5 billion yuan in 2007, up 135 percent from 8.3 billion yuan in 2006.

    No capital problems: Eastern Airlines

    CHINA Eastern Airlines Corp. executive director Luo Zhuping said yesterday the carrier was experiencing no problems with capital, but declined to say whether it took a one-year loan of US$337 million.

    His comments came after a person familiar with the situation said the Shanghai-based carrier had signed an agreement for the U.S. dollar loans with overseas arms of Chinese banks to help ease a shortage of funds. The person said China Eastern Airlines was 3.74 billion yuan (US$534.29 million) behind in various payments at the end of February.