BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (AgBank) , the country’s third-biggest lender by assets, reported flat growth in its first half net profit and a rise in bad debts. AgBank said its net profit for the January-June period was 104.32 billion yuan ($16.29 billion), up 0.3 percent from 104.03 billion in the year-ago period. The first-half figure implies a net profit of 50.2 billion yuan in the second quarter, compared to 50.6 billion in the same period last year, according to Reuters calculations. Two analysts had on average forecast profit of 51.9 billion yuan for the quarter, according to Starmine data. AgBank’s non-performing loan ratio rose to 1.83 percent at end-June from 1.65 percent at end-March. ($1 = 6.4038 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Engen Tham in SHANGHAI and Shu Zhang in BEIJING; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Agricultural Bank of China - 1H net profit of RMB 104.32bn ($16.29bn), up 0.3 percent YoY. A flat growth and revealing a rise in bad debts, similar to Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's results yesterday.