October 27 -- China Citic Bank Corporation (601998.SH, 0998.HK) posted a 40.9 percent year-on-year growth in net profit during the first three quarters to 24.23 billion yuan, of which third quarter earnings accounted for 9.2 billion yuan, reports China Business News, citing a bank filing.

Net interest income increased 34.96 percent year-on-year to 46.97 billion yuan during the first three quarters, while net interest margin rose 0.35 percentage point to 2.96 percent.

Net non-interest income rose 58.51 percent year-on-year to 8.49 billion yuan, with its contribution to total revenue up 1.97 percentage points year-on-year to 15.31 percent.

Total assets hit 2.27 trillion yuan through the end of September, while the return on assets and return on equity were up 0.23 and 1.43 percentage points year-on-year to 1.48 percent and 22.32 percent, respectively.

The balance of loans rose 9.49 percent from end 2010 to 1.38 trillion yuan through the end of September. During the same period, the deposit balance increased 8.02 percent to 1.87 trillion yuan. The loan-deposit ratio hit 74 percent as of end September, close to the warning line of 75 percent.

The balance of non-performing loans (NPL) decreased 266 million yuan from end 2010 to 8.27 billion yuan, with a NPL ratio of 0.6 percent.

The provision coverage ratio rose 36.75 percentage points from end 2010 to 250.26 percent through the end of September.

Citic Bank recorded a 1.52 percentage points increase in the capital adequacy ratio from end 2010 to 12.83 percent at end September, while core capital adequacy ratio was up 1.98 percentage points to 10.43 percent.

The bank completed an A+H share rights issue in July, and raised 25.67 billion yuan.

Shares of Citic Bank were unchanged to close the morning session at 4.46 yuan per share.