Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is expected to report the biggest profit of any bank in the world when it releases its interim report in Beijing on Thursday. ICBC, already the world’s largest bank by market cap, has indicated its first-half net profit grew by more than 50%, from Rmb41bn ($6bn) the previous year. But analysts estimate profits will be up more than 60% to about Rmb67bn ($9.7bn). Most of China’s state-dominated banking sector has been virtually unscathed by the global credit crisis because of limited exposure to overseas markets and the absence of sophisticated credit instruments, while its western competitors have mostly reported first-half profit falls or losses. HSBC, which reported the largest profits of any bank last year, recently said first-half net profit fell 29% yoy to $7.72bn.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 5:25 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with icbc. Edit this entry.