CHINA Citic Bank, the banking unit of the nation's largest state-owned investment firm, said third-quarter profit increased 41 percent on higher lending and fee income.

Net income rose to 9.2 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) from 6.51 billion yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based bank said in a regulatory statement yesterday. That beat the 7.6 billion yuan median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The lender, controlled by China Citic Group, said the non-performing loan ratio fell by 0.07 percentage point to 0.6 percent at the end of September. Provisions set aside against bad debts surged to 250.26 percent of NPL from 213.51 percent at the end of last year.