-- China Merchants Bank (SHA:600036, HKG:3968) reported a modest increase in first-quarter profit even as the lender navigates ongoing risks tied to the country's prolonged real estate downturn.
Net profit attributable to shareholders rose 1.5% to 37.9 billion yuan from 37.3 billion yuan a year earlier, with earnings per share rising to 1.49 yuan from 1.48 yuan, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Wednesday.
Net operating income climbed 3.9% to 87 billion yuan from 83.7 billion yuan the previous year.
The lackluster results come as the lender continues to navigate risks in China's real estate sector. By the end of the quarter, CMB said its total balance of real estate-related businesses subject to credit risks amounted to 348 billion yuan, down 1.7% from the previous year.
The country's real estate sector is now in its fifth year of slump, with home values in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai falling more than a third from their peaks, according to Bloomberg News.
CMB said to mitigate the risks, it will "increase support for 'whitelist' projects to facilitate the stable operation and high-quality development of the real estate market."
Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that mortgages held by millions of Chinese homeowners are now in "negative equity", a situation in which borrowers owe more than the current value of their properties.
CMB said its overall risk of residential mortgage loans was "controllable", with sufficient collateral. The portfolio carries a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 40.7%, up 0.07 percentage points from the prior year.
Meanwhile, the group's operating expenses ballooned 2.9% year on year to 27.4 billion yuan in Q1.
Expected credit losses for the quarter jumped 16% from a year earlier to 14.8 billion yuan.
By the end of the quarter, CMB's non-performing loans rose by 1.65 billion yuan year on year to 69.9 billion yuan. Its ratio of non-performing loans was unchanged at 0.94%.
CMB said the number of its retail customers rose 1.3% to 227 million as of the end of Q1, with the balance of total assets under management jumping 4.5% year on year from the end of the previous year to 17.9 trillion yuan.
The lender recently redeemed 275 million domestic preferred shares for 27.8 billion yuan to settle the nominal value and dividends accrued on the shares.