ICBC Middle East profit soars 116% to $14m

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Middle East, a unit of the world's largest bank in terms of market capitalisation and profit, Tuesday announced that its 2011 first-half profit more than doubled as its as fee income and net interest income rose. The bank's first half 2011 profit surged 116 per cent from $8 million (Dh29.35 million) in the same period last year to $14 million while operating revenue rose 80 per cent to $19 million compared to the same period last year. "Despite the political turbulence in the Middle East and North Africa we maintained significant growth across all areas of our business and we remain committed to pursuing our growth strategy for the region by increasing the scale of our existing business, broadening our range of products and services and expanding into new markets in the Middle East," said Tian Zhiping, CEO, ICBC Middle East. For the first half of the year, the bank's assets increased by 137 per cent or $1.55 billion and its deposits increased by 110 per cent compared to the year end of 2010. Fee income and net interest income are two drivers of ICBC's increase in revenues in the first half of 2011.