Ping An Bank's 2025 Annual Report Analysis: Retail Lending Growth and Quality Show Consistent Improvement

Deep News03-23 12:40

Ping An Bank Co.,Ltd. reported annual revenue of 131.442 billion yuan for 2025, a decrease of 10.4% year-on-year, compared to a 9.78% decline in the third quarter. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 42.633 billion yuan, down 4.21% year-on-year, versus a 3.50% drop in the third quarter. On the revenue side, the slowdown was primarily driven by a decline in other non-interest income. Annual net interest income reached 88.021 billion yuan, falling 5.79% year-on-year but improving by 2.46 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, supported by improvements in both volume and pricing. Net fee income was 23.894 billion yuan, down 0.90% year-on-year, remaining largely stable. Net other non-interest income was 19.527 billion yuan, a significant decrease of 33.03%, with the decline widening by 8.91 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, partly due to a high base effect from bond market gains and investment income in the fourth quarter of 2024. On the profit side, the annual net profit decline of 4.21% represented a 0.71 percentage point larger drop compared to the third quarter. Contributions from scale, net interest margin, and taxes saw marginal improvement, while contributions from fees, other non-interest income, costs, and provisions marginally declined.

The annualized net interest margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 1.71%, down 4 basis points from the third quarter. On the asset side, the annualized yield on interest-earning assets was 3.18% in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 16 basis points from the previous quarter, with the loan yield at 3.71%. On the liability side, the annualized cost of interest-bearing liabilities was 1.48%, down 10 basis points quarter-on-quarter, with the deposit cost rate at 1.53%. The spread between deposits and loans was 2.18% in the fourth quarter, a 5 basis point decrease from the first half of 2025.

Retail lending growth continued to improve, while bill financing saw a significant reduction. Total loans reached 3.39 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, up 0.5% year-on-year, though growth slowed by 0.52 percentage points from the third quarter, mainly due to the compression of bill financing. Corporate loans, including bills, stood at 1.66 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.52% year-on-year, but growth slowed by 2.28 percentage points, accounting for 49.06% of total loans. Within this segment, general corporate loans grew 9.21%, while bill financing fell 39.99%. The top three industries by loan exposure were social services, technology, culture, and healthcare; manufacturing; and real estate, accounting for 12.83%, 6.74%, and 6.20% of total loans, respectively. Retail loans amounted to 1.73 trillion yuan, down 2.26% year-on-year, but the rate of decline narrowed by 0.99 percentage points from the previous quarter and 8.39 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Credit card and consumer loan growth rebounded, with full-year growth rates for mortgages, credit cards, consumer loans, and business loans changing by -4.02, +9.37, +3.78, and -0.10 percentage points, respectively, compared to the first half of 2025.

The deposit structure remained stable, with personal deposits largely unchanged year-on-year. Total deposits reached 3.58 trillion yuan by year-end, up 1.39% year-on-year. Corporate deposits increased 2.17%, while personal deposits were nearly flat, rising just 0.02%, accounting for 64.06% and 35.94% of total deposits, respectively. By maturity, time deposits grew 0.46% and demand deposits increased 3.21%, with time deposit growth slowing by 2.0 percentage points from the first half of the year.

Asset quality showed continued improvement in retail non-performing loans. The bank's non-performing loan ratio was 1.05% in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter. The corporate loan NPL ratio was 0.93%, up 0.02 percentage points from the first half, while the retail NPL ratio was 1.23%, down 0.04 percentage points, indicating sustained improvement. Specifically, NPL ratios for mortgages, credit cards, consumer loans, and business loans were 0.28%, 2.24%, 1.12%, and 1.17%, respectively, changing by 0.00, -0.06, -0.25, and +0.12 percentage points from the first half of 2025. The provision coverage ratio and loan provision ratio were 220.88% and 2.33% in the fourth quarter, down 8.72 and 0.08 percentage points, respectively, from the previous quarter.

For the full year 2025, total cash dividends amounted to 11.566 billion yuan, with a dividend of 5.96 yuan per 10 shares, representing 28.83% of net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders, an increase of 0.51 percentage points from 2024. Based on the published 2025 annual report, profit forecasts for 2026 and 2027 have been adjusted to 42.921 billion yuan and 43.691 billion yuan, respectively, with a new 2028 forecast of 45.139 billion yuan.

The investment view suggests projected price-to-book ratios of 0.43x, 0.41x, and 0.38x for 2026, 2027, and 2028, respectively. Performance is expected to bottom out, driven by optimized liability costs and improving retail asset quality, with pressure from retail loan contraction nearing its end and net interest margin pressures easing marginally. In the medium to long term, the bank's comprehensive financial advantages and deepening retail transformation are poised to reshape growth momentum. Investors are advised to monitor the pace of asset quality improvement. An "Overweight" rating is maintained. Risks include slower-than-expected economic recovery, a sluggish recovery in retail wealth management, and volatility in corporate asset quality.

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