China Construction Bank (CCB) said Monday its adjusted net profit increased 18.02 percent in 2006 to 46.319 billion RMB (5.94 billion U.S. dollars).

CCB announced its 2006 annual results in Beijing on Monday. 2006 was the first complete year of operations for the bank after its listing in Hong Kong.

As of Dec. 31, 2006, the total assets of CCB were 5,448.511 billion RMB (698.53 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 862.769 billion RMB (110.61 billion U.S. dollars), or 18.81 percent from 2005. Capital adequacy ratio was 12.11 percent.

Profit before tax rose by 10.353 billion RMB (1.33 billion U.S. dollars), or 18.70 percent from 2005 to 65.717 billion RMB (8.43 billion U.S. dollars), the company said.

The bank's earnings per share for 2006 were 0.21 RMB (2005: 0. 24 RMB), with return on average assets at 0.92 percent and return on average equity at 15.00 percent. The board has recommended a cash dividend of 0.092 per share for 2006.

The bank's credit and asset quality saw a continuous improvement in 2006, with the amount of non-performing loans dropping by 70 million RMB (8.97 million U.S. dollars) and the non- performing loan ratio dropping by 0.55 percentage points year-on- year, the company said.

CCB maintained its leading position among other banks in China in the credit-card business, and was the first Chinese bank to attain a credit-card (including semi-debit card) circulation above 10 million, of which 6.34 million were dual-currency credit cards, with a total card spending of 40.467 billion RMB (5.19 billion U.S. dollars). The transaction amount of electronic banking reached 30. 7 trillion RMB (3.94 trillion dollars) in 2006, representing a year-on-year growth of 227 percent.

CCB Board Chairman Guo Shuqing said that in 2007, CCB will continue its reform in business strategy transformation, operational structure adjustment and internal risk control, and fulfill its commitments to investors.