Tsingtao Brewery profit up 0.7%

    TSINGTAO Brewery Co., China’s second-largest brewer by volume, said Friday first-half net profit edged up 0.7 percent, held back by slowing growth in the wider beer market and increasing competition from international rivals.

    Tsingtao, which is one-fifth owned by Japan’s Asahi Breweries Ltd., saw net profit rise to 1.4 billion yuan (US$227.9 million) in the six months to the end of June from 1.39 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier. Competition has been heating up with the big four global brewers — Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg — looking to Asia for growth with sales flagging in Europe and the United States. China is the world’s biggest beer market by volume.

    Construction Bank’s profit misses estimates

    CHINA Construction Bank Corp. (CCB) posted Friday a lower-than-expected increase in second-quarter profit, with rising levels of bad loans, joining peers who have suffered from the country’s slowing economic growth.

    Net profit at the country’s second-biggest lender rose 7.9 percent to 64.9 billion yuan (US$10.56 billion) in the quarter. Profit for the first half was 130.7 billion yuan, below the average forecast in a poll of analysts of 131.3 billion yuan for the January-June period.

    Merchants Bank net profit up 16%

    CHINA Merchants Bank Co.’s first-half net profit rose 16 percent year on year thanks to higher interest income and strong growth in commission income.

    Net profit for the first six months of this year was 30.46 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion), up from 26.27 billion yuan a year ago, the country’s sixth-largest lender by assets said Friday. Net interest income rose 14 percent to 53.86 billion yuan and net fee and commission income rose 67 percent to 23.7 billion yuan, the bank said.

    Citic Securities net profit nearly doubles

    CHINA’S Citic Securities Co. said Friday that first-half net profit rose 93 percent from a year earlier, because of a consolidation of two companies, higher revenue from securities brokering and investment gains.

    For the first six months of this year, net profit rose to 4.08 billion yuan (US$664 million) from 2.11 billion yuan a year earlier, China’s largest brokerage by assets said in a report to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.