The domestically listed Industrial Bank recorded a 54.1-percent rise in its net profits to 3.8 billion yuan (493.5 million U.S. dollars) last year, with earnings per share of 0.95 yuan, according to its annual report released on Tuesday.

The Industrial Bank, China's tenth largest commercial bank, recorded 4.05 yuan in net assets per share in 2006, up 26.6 percent on the previous year. The bank's outstanding non-performing loans stood at 4.98 billion yuan (646.8 million U.S. dollars) at the end of 2006, down 667 million yuan (86.6 million U.S. dollars) from the beginning of the year, and its NPL ratio was down 0.8 percent to 1.53 percent.

At the end of last year, the bank's gross assets amounted to 617.7 billion yuan (80.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 30 percent. The bank reported 423.2 billion yuan (55 billion U.S. dollars) in outstanding deposits at the end of 2006, up 19.1 percent, and 324.5 billion yuan (42.1 billion U.S. dollars) in outstanding loans, up 33.8 percent.

The loans were mainly spent on individuals, manufacturers, real estate developers, transport projects, warehousing, distributors and retailers, according to the annual report. The Industrial Bank went public on February 5 this year on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

It raised nearly 16 billion yuan (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) from the issue of around one billion Renminbi-denominated A-shares on the bourse. The funds were used to boost its capital adequacy ratio, strengthen its risk prevention capability and profitability, said Gao Jianping, the bank's chairman.