China's Industrial Bank says net profits up 6.54% in 2017

BEIJING - China's Industrial Bank, a mid-sized commercial lender, said Monday that its net profits increased 6.5 percent year-on-year to 57.4 billion yuan ($8.9 billion) in 2017.

Despite a rise in profits, the bank's business revenue dropped 10.81 percent to 140 billion yuan last year, the Fujian-based lender said in a preliminary earnings estimate report to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The bank said the its operations were "within expectations" in the past year, stressing a steady growth in total assets, which climbed 5.5 percent from a year ago to 6.4 trillion yuan.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.59 percent at the end of December, down 0.06 percentage point from the beginning of 2017.

Earnings per share were 2.75 yuan last year, down 0.72 percent from 2016.

Industrial Bank's share price gained 0.39 percent to 18 yuan on Monday.