Overseas assets of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) reached US$43 billion by the end of June, up 22 percent, or US$7.8 billion, from the end of 2007, an ICBC spokesman said on Tuesday.

He said the rise in ICBC's overseas assets largely resulted from a deal finished in March with South Africa's Standard Bank.

ICBC, China's largest commercial bank, announced in March that it had taken a 20-percent stake in Standard Bank, the largest commercial bank in Africa, for US$5.46 billion.

The ICBC spokesman also attributed the fast growth in overseas assets to the opportunity brought about by the expansion of Chinese companies into overseas markets.

ICBC overseas institutions had provided an international settlement service for Chinese companies, involving a sum of US$97.3 billion, up 49.7 percent from the same period last year. Of the total, international settlement on trade amounted to US$23 billion, up by 96.5 percent.

The Chinese bank said its overseas institutions posted a profit of US$240 million after deducting the provision for bad debt in the first half, up by 42 percent over the same period last year.

The non-performing loans ratio of its overseas institutions was 0.19 percent, down 0.15 percentage points from early this year.

The Standard Bank posted a half yearly profit of almost 7.4 billion South African Rand (US$958 million), up 16 percent over the first half last year, according to the ICBC.

The Chinese bank received a dividend of 588 million South African Rand (US$37.3 million) from the Standard Bank in the first half.

The ICBC has 126 overseas branches in 15 countries and regions.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2008)