CITIC rises as PROFIT HITS RECORD $70B

Citic (0267) said its 2021 net profit jumped 24 percent to a record high of HK$70.2 billion from a year ago and it plans to declare 45.6 HK cents of final dividend.

The Chinese brokerage's share price rose 2.35 percent to HK$8.71 on the news.

Revenue for 2021 grew 28 percent to HK$708.94 billion. The financial services sector reported a 19.66 percent rise in net profit to HK$52.08 billion, while the non-financial business recorded a 40 percent growth in profit.

Citic Bank's net profit rose 13.6 percent to 55.64 billion yuan (HK$68.69 billion), while the securities units reported a record-high net profit of 23.1 billion yuan, up 55 percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, Citic's advanced materials segment was the largest profit contributor last year with an 88.81 percent surge to HK$19.16 billion, benefiting from national resource security strategies and strong commodity prices like iron ore.

By markets, the turnover from external customers in mainland China increased 31.89 percent to HK$613.23 billion while the figure in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan slid 1.58 percent to HK$45.70 billion.