BEA HK's profits ballooned 151.1% YoY to $1.19b

The disposal of Tricor Holdings accounted for a third of the profits.

The Bank of East Asia Hong Kong reported higher earnings amidst an improving credit climate after profit attributable to owners of the parent ballooned by 151.1% YoY to $1.19b (HKD9.3b) in 2017.

According to a press release, the profit includes the $383.49m (HKD3b) disposal of Tricor Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries whose operations were discontinued. 

Net fee and commission income from continuing operations rose 1.5% to $318.66m (HK$2.5b) thanks to income from securities and brokerage, retail banking, and asset management businesses.

Basic earnings per share from continuing operations rose to $0.27 (HK2.09). Return on average assets rose from 0.4% to 1.1%, while the return on average equity rose from 4.1% to 10.3%.

The bank is also pushing for a regional management structure to enhance control of credit risk thus reducing its branch footprint in the Mainland by 18% and 19.6% in Hong Kong.

“With economic conditions improving on the Mainland, we are actively developing new business areas that will sustain our growth over the long term. In particular, BEA China is expanding its consumer lending capability as China transitions to a consumer society. We see strong potential in this area. System-wide, non-mortgage retail lending grew by over 40% year-on-year in 2017,” said BEA Chairman Dr David K.P. Li.

BEA also targets to double its consumer loan customer base by the end of 2020 to fatten its retail lending share portfolio from 19% to 30% in 2020.