① In contrast, the growth rate of the Bank of Hangzhou's size index in the first quarter of this year slowed from double digits to single digits. ② The first quarter achieved net profit attributable to the company's shareholders of 5.133 billion yuan, an increase of 21.11% over the same period last year. ③ Earlier, the market expected that due to the high base for the first quarter of 2023, the revenue growth rate of most banks in the first quarter of this year will be further weakened compared to the full year of 2023.
Financial Services Association, April 19 (Reporter Liang Kezhi) Today, the Bank of Hangzhou released its performance report for the first quarter of 2024. It is the first listed commercial bank in a listed city to publish a quarterly report this year. From January to March 2024, the bank achieved operating income of 9.761 billion yuan, an increase of 3.50% over the same period of the previous year; realized net profit attributable to the company's shareholders of 5.133 billion yuan, an increase of 21.11% over the same period last year.
Compared with the performance of “achieving operating income of 9.431 billion yuan, an increase of 7.55% over the same period of the previous year; achieving net profit attributable to the company's shareholders of 4.239 billion yuan, an increase of 28.11% over the same period last year”, the Bank of Hangzhou's growth rate declined slightly this year.
Recently, Ni Jun, a banking analyst at GF Securities, issued an opinion that due to the high base for the first quarter of 2023, the revenue growth rate of most banks in the first quarter of this year will be further weakened compared to the whole of 2023.
Regarding the first quarter results, the Bank of Hangzhou stated in its quarterly report that “the company adheres to the original intention of service entities, deepens the implementation of the “2022 5” strategic plan, progresses steadily in economies of scale, maintains stable asset quality, continues to consolidate the foundation for business development, and achieved a smooth start in the second half of the strategic plan.”
Revenue and profit continued to grow, with provision coverage as high as 551%
Specifically, from January to March 2024, the company achieved operating income of 9.761 billion yuan, an increase of 3.50% over the same period of the previous year; realized net profit attributable to shareholders of 5.133 billion yuan, an increase of 21.11% over the same period of the previous year; a weighted average return on net assets of 4.99% (unannualized), an increase of 0.27 percentage points over the same period of the previous year; and basic earnings per share of 0.82 yuan/share (annualized), an increase of 22.39% over the same period last year.
The growth rate of assets and liabilities slowed down. The data shows that at the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company's total assets were 1917.305 billion yuan, up 4.13% from the end of the previous year, of which total loans were 880.78 billion yuan, up 7.89% from the end of the previous year; total liabilities were 1,800,562 billion yuan, up 4.08% from the end of the previous year; and total deposits were 1,136.99 billion yuan, up 6.55% from the end of the previous year.
The growth rates of total assets, total loans, and total liabilities in the first quarter of 2023 were 16.42%, 19.02%, and 15.45%, respectively. In contrast, the growth rate of the Bank of Hangzhou's size index slowed from double digits to single digits in the first quarter of this year.
Asset quality remained stable. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company's non-performing loan ratio was 0.76%, the same as at the end of the previous year; the ratio of overdue loans to non-performing loans was 87.81%, the ratio of loans overdue for more than 90 days to non-performing loans was 58.39%, and the non-performing loan provision coverage rate was 551.23%, which is still in a high position.
In terms of wealth management business, the Bank of Hangzhou said that by launching the “Happy Golden Gui” wealth management brand and actively promoting the application of the “Polaris” platform, retail visitor platform, etc., the AUM scale and savings scale have grown steadily.
According to the data, total retail customer assets (AUM) at the end of the period reached 549.118 billion yuan, an increase of 31,680 billion yuan, an increase of 6.12%; the balance of personal savings deposits was 247.035 billion yuan, an increase of 18.735 billion yuan over the end of the previous year, an increase of 8.21%.
It is worth noting that in a situation where real estate is sluggish and early repayment conditions are common, the Bank of Hangzhou's retail finance line loan balance was 134.97 billion yuan, of which the balance of personal housing mortgage loans was 94.722 billion yuan, an increase of 540 million yuan over the end of the previous year, maintaining the positive growth of mortgage loans.
There was an increase in the dividend rate in 2023, but two major reasons led to once again being less than 30%
On April 19, the Bank of Hangzhou also released its 2023 annual report. The data showed that net profit attributable to common shareholders for the full year of 2023 was 14.383 billion yuan, an increase of 23.15%, more than 20% for three consecutive years; the weighted average return on net assets was 15.57%, an increase of 1.48 percentage points over the previous year; and basic earnings per share were 2.31 yuan, an increase of 26.23%.
The Bank of Hangzhou announced that with the proposed dividend policy of 5.20 yuan per 10 shares in 2023, the annual dividend scale will reach 3,084 billion yuan, with dividends per share and total dividends increasing by 30% year-on-year.
According to the 2022 distribution plan, the Bank of Hangzhou paid a dividend of 4 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares last year. The total amount of cash disbursements was 2,372 billion yuan, and the payout amount accounted for 20.31% of net profit.
In comparison, although the total dividends for 2023 only accounted for 22.52% of the net profit attributable to the company's common shareholders in the consolidated statement, there was a certain increase over last year.
According to the “2023 Profit Distribution Plan Notice”, the net profit of the parent company of the Bank of Hangzhou is RMB 1350,0135 million. First, the statutory surplus fund is withdrawn according to a ratio of 10% of the parent company's profit after tax, amounting to RMB 135,0013 million; secondly, a general risk reserve of RMB 174,5923 million is calculated based on the 1.5% difference in the parent company's risk asset balance; finally, cash dividends of RMB 5.20 (tax included) will be distributed to all registered common shareholders for every 10 shares. 3,083,748,073.12 yuan (tax included).
Regarding the dividend ratio once again falling below 30%, the Bank of Hangzhou explained that the first is to enhance the ability to withstand risks. Capital supervision requirements are becoming stricter. In order to meet various risks and challenges, commercial banks should strengthen endogenous capital accumulation, ensure continuous replenishment of endogenous capital, and further enhance their ability to withstand risks; second, support the development of the real economy. Reasonably reserve part of the profit to enrich the core Tier 1 capital and meet the agreed credit scale investment.
Chairman Song Jianbin revealed in the 2023 annual report that since the listing in 2016, the cumulative cash dividend for common shares will reach 14.850 billion yuan, exceeding the amount of equity financing completed so far.