HONG KONG :Hong Kong-headquartered lender Dah Sing Banking Group said its credit impairment in the first half of this year increased 34 per cent year-on-year, as the weakening commercial property market in Hong Kong weighed on its balance sheets.
The lender took nearly HK$780 million ($99.9 million) in credit charges for the first six months this year, up from HK$582 million a year ago, according to the bank’s earnings release on Wednesday.
The bank earned HK$1.82 billion in pretax profit in the first half of the year, up 15.1 per cent from HK$1.58 billion a year ago.
The newly booked loss came after its credit impairment in 2024 surged by 145 per cent from 2023.
Banks with sizable exposure to Hong Kong’s waning commercial real estate sector are taking the heat as developers struggle with repayments on falling market demand.
In a sign of the growing bad loans in the sector, Dah Sing’s peer Hang Seng Bank, took a HK$2.5 billion charge on Hong Kong commercial real estate in the first six months of this year – up 224 per cent from a year ago.
Shares of Dah Sing Banking climbed 0.4 per cent by the lunch break, ahead of the results statement.
($1 = 7.8075 Hong Kong dollars)
