Eximbank of Vietnam (HOSE: EIB) said on Tuesday its net profit in the first half rose 78.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.27 trillion dong ($61.8 million).

Ho Chi Minh City-based Eximbank said in a financial statement that total assets as of the end of June rose nearly 9 percent from the end of 2010 to 142.72 trillion dong.

The lender, 15 percent owned by Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Vietnam's fifth-biggest partly private lender by assets, said loans totalled 68.96 trillion dong as of June 30, up 10.6 percent from Dec. 31, 2010. It did not give a comparison with June 2010.

Eximbank's lending growth in the first six months compared with a government target to keep the annual credit growth of Vietnam's banking sector below 20 percent this year, following a rise of 27.65 percent in 2010.

Shares in Eximbank were unchanged at 14,900 dong each at 0412 GMT on Tuesday.

While first-half net revenues nearly doubled to 2.25 trillion dong from 1.16 trillion dong in the same period last year, Eximbank said losses from trading soared to 24.17 billion dong from 505 million dong in January-June 2010.

Vietnam's stock market has been on a gradual decline this year as the economy struggles with double-digit inflation and the government tightens credit to fight rising consumer prices.

The VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, which marked its 11th anniversary this month, was trading down 0.24 percent at 408.39 points at 0317 GMT on Tuesday, having lost 15.7 percent so far this year.

July inflation was estimated at 22.16 percent compared to July 2010, the highest rise since November 2008 when the annual rate was 24.22 percent, government statistics show.

In a separate statement, VietinBank , Vietnam's biggest partly private lender by assets, said its net profit in the first half of this year jumped 65 percent to 2.72 trillion dong as loans rose 12.3 percent as of June 30 from a year ago to 261.69 trillion dong.

Vietnamese businesses have been facing high interest rates and higher costs of inputs, which could prompt many projects to face delays, the National Assembly's Economic Committee said in a report last week.

"Production and business, if facing delays for a prolonged period, could lead to the risk of raising bad debts in banks in the last months of 2011 and in 2012," the report said.

Eximbank did not give its bad-debt ratio for the first half.

reuters