BEA earns US$339.7M on operating income growth

Bank of East Asia's consolidated profit after taxation reached US$339.7 million for 2009.

This represents a strong rebound from the net profit of US$13.38 million recorded for 2008, when the Bank disposed of or wrote down its entire collateralised debt obligation portfolio.

Total operating income surged to US$1.3 billion, a rise of 57.8 percent compared to the US$830.9 million recorded for 2008.

The BEA Group also generated net interest income of US$868.2 million, a marginal decrease of 0.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Despite the sharp economic contraction in the first quarter of 2009, the BEA Group continued to invest for future growth and expand its mainland branch operations.
Total operating expenses rose by 6.1 percent to US$788.7 million, compared to US$743.66 million for 2008.

Due to the continuing deterioration in overseas credit markets throughout the year, BEA registered impairment losses on loans and advances of US$142 million for 2009, an increase of 98 percent over the previous year. This was partly offset by an improvement in impairment losses on available-for-sale financial assets, which shrank to US$1.8 million in 2009.