Top China bank ICBC, the world's largest, posts 4.1 percent first-quarter profit rise

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD
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Florence Lo(Reuters)
SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), the world’s biggest commercial lender by assets, said net profit grew 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, slightly below expectations.
Profit was 82.01 billion yuan (£9.43 billion) in the three months through March, compared with 78.80 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier, the bank said in a filing on Monday.
Analysts had expected a 4.3 percent rise in first-quarter net profit, according to two brokerage estimates compiled by Reuters.
(Reporting By Shu Zhang in Singapore and Cheng Leng in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar)