1H22 results summary
1) If funding income/cost of foreign currency swap contracts are included, BOCHK’s adj. NIM increased by 3bps yoy to 1.13% (1Q22/2Q22: 1.08%/1.19%) and adj. net interest income increased by 8.7% in 1H22. Total loan grew by 5.1% hoh with 0.62ppt market share gains. Total deposits increased by 3.0% hoh, as time deposit grew significantly (+13.5% hoh) and CASA ratio was down 3.6ppt hoh to 61.7% as of end-1H22. 2) Due to the volatile capital market and weakened investment sentiment, fee and commission income from securities brokerage, insurance and funds related dropped by 36.6%, 24.3% and 38.0% yoy in 1H22.
Net fee and commission income decreased by 22.7% yoy. 3) To reflect the uncertainties of global macroeconomic growth and adverse effects resulted from local pandemic in 1H22, BOCHK adjusted parameters in ECL model and charged a HKD359 mn impairment allowances at Stage 1(1H21: HKD40 mn net reversal).
Meanwhile, owing to the downgraded rating of certain corporate customers, BOCHK’s charged a HKD 1.05bn impairment allowances at Stage 3 in 1H22, compared with HKD 0.73bn in 1H21. In summary, BOCHK’s total impairment allowances up 45% yoy to HKD 17.1bn, annualized credit cost up 6bps to 0.21% in 1H22. 4) NPL ratio increased by 19bps hoh to 0.46% as of end-1H22, majorly due to impact of Mainland property companies’ loan exposure. 5) Operating expenses grew by 3.2% yoy in 1H22 as increasing staff costs, cost-to-income ratio was down 1.53ppt yoy to 28.74% in 1H22.
Manageable impacts from Mainland property companies
As of end-1H22, BOCHK had an HKD102.9bn loan exposure to Mainland property companies, accounting for ~6.1% of total loan balance (end-2021: HKD105.8bn, 6.6%). Of which, non-performing loan balance was HKD3.8bn (NPL ratio: 3.7%) and special mention loan balance was HKD0.82bn. Loans for SOEs and private enterprises was 78% and 22%, respectively. Moreover, BOCHK has no branches in Mainland China, and hence recent repayment refusal of personal housing mortgage loans has no direct impact on the company.
Continues to benefit from rate hikes in 2H22
1-month HIBOR has rebounded significantly since mid-June with U.S. Fed rate hikes. Per CME Fedwatch tool, as of Sep. 2 in HKT, the market expects U.S. Fed has a 74.0% probability to raise rate by 75bps in September and a 64.9% probability to raise rate to 3.75-4.00% within 2022 . With expected narrowing interest rate spread between USD and HKD and decreasing HK interbank aggregate balance , HIBOR may continue to rebound in 2H22, improving NII performance of HK Banks .