Annual report blunder! China Everbright Bank's latest response

Source: Securities Times Network | Author: Huang Yulin

On the evening of April 1, Light Bank H shares were announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, requiring revisions to the information published for preliminary results (i.e., the annual results announcement).

Earlier, the “glitch” in the Light Bank annual report version drew market attention: in the annual reports initially released by the HKEX and the SSE, the data such as “asset size” for several of the bank’s branches showed clear formatting misalignment and mix-ups. The SSE version was quickly corrected afterward, but the data still had substantial discrepancies from the HKEX version, leading to the same bank disclosing branch asset sizes that differ greatly between the two locations.

According to the latest announcement released by Light Bank on the HKEX, all the data for the eight branches involved with erroneous information have now been fully corrected.

The data shows that as of the end of 2025, the asset sizes of Light Bank’s Shanghai Branch, Shijiazhuang Branch, Tianjin Branch, Qingdao Branch, Yantai Branch, Ningbo Branch, Shenzhen Branch, and Chengdu Branch are 8B yuan, 8B yuan, 120.27B yuan, 101.33B yuan, 98.01B yuan, 72.6B yuan, 81.89B yuan, and 96.14B yuan, respectively.

Previously, Light Bank’s H-share annual report had labeled the asset sizes of the aforementioned branches as 395.4 billion yuan, 39.54B yuan, 598.36 billion yuan, 59.84B yuan, 274.74 billion yuan, 27.47B yuan, 518.78 billion yuan, and 51.88B yuan.

Light Bank stated that the corrections do not affect any other materials contained in the annual results announcement.

On the left is a screenshot of Light Bank’s revised annual report released on the HKEX; on the right is a screenshot of the bank’s annual report on the SSE, with the relevant figures marked.

The day before this annual report data issue gained traction, Light Bank had just held its 2025 annual results press conference.

The data shows that in 2025, Light Bank achieved operating revenue of 145.88B yuan, down 6.72% year over year; it achieved net profit of 391.4 billion yuan, down 6.61% year over year. By the end of December 2025, Light Bank’s total assets surpassed 7 trillion yuan, up 2.96% from the end of the prior year to 8B yuan.

In terms of asset quality, as of the end of December 2025, Light Bank’s balance of non-performing loans was 507.42 billion yuan, up 14.9 billion yuan from the end of the prior year; the non-performing loan ratio was 1.27%, up 0.02 percentage points from the end of the prior year. Provision coverage ratio was 174.14%, down 6.45 percentage points from the end of the prior year.

In response to the decline in revenue, Light Bank’s management cited three main reasons: first, the decline in net interest margin, which constrained the growth of interest income; second, the periodical decrease in other income affected by a substantial decline in bond market interest rates; and third, increased efforts to defuse risks in related business and to drive business transformation, leading to periodical pressure on credit card interest and fee income.

Management said that 2026 will be a year to solidify the foundation. The bank will adhere to offset development, build distinctive competitive advantages, increase revenue, control costs, strengthen risk control, enhance resource support related to this, and promote stabilization and recovery in its profitability level.