HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong-headquartered lender Dah Sing Banking Group said its credit impairment in the first half of this year increased 34% 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% from HK$1.58 billion a year ago.
The newly booked loss came after its credit impairment in 2024 surged by 145% 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% from a year ago.
Shares of Dah Sing Banking climbed 0.4% by the lunch break, ahead of the results statement.
($1 = 7.8075 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Selena Li and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
