The Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), a major Shanghai-based listed lender, on Friday posted a 31 percent jump in 2006 net profit to 3.35 billion yuan.

Pre-tax profit for 2006 amounted to 6.04 billion yuan, up 40 percent from a year before, the bank said. Earnings per share rose 17.76 percent from 2005 to 0.769 yuan.

The bank's share price lost almost 3 percent to close at 20.85 yuan. The price fall was in line with Friday's stock market performance. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.74 percent to close at 2,641 on profit taking.

"The persistent wide spread between the lending rates and deposit rates was a major factor in the rise in profits for the SPDB and other banks," said Qian Kun, an analyst at Changjiang Securities.

The People's Bank of China raised the one-year loan rate and deposit rate by 0.54 and 0.27 of a percentage point respectively last year.

The bank's income from fee-based services increased more than 70 percent last year, but still accounted for only 5 percent of total income.

"Intermediate services that generate fee-based income are an important sector to develop in coming years," said Shen Si, secretary of the board of directors of the SPDB.

The bank is currently applying to establish a joint venture fund management company with a French financial company, and set up a life insurance company with BNP Paribas SA in which the SPDB will take a major share.

"The joint venture insurance service will not produce a quick profit, but it follows the trend of integrating services between banks and insurance companies to build a complete social financial system," said Qian.

Besides, the bank currently has a non-performing loan provisioning coverage ratio of nearly 160 percent, ranking it as the first in all the A-share listed banks, indicating a strong reimbursing and risk control capacity for bad loans.

For 2007, some analysts predict profit will grow nearly 40 percent because of the bank's expansion of financial services and the investment funds being generated by the bullish stock market.

The SPDB planned to list on the H-share market next year and is still waiting for government approval.

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