China Minsheng Banking Corp, the nation's first listed non-State lender, showed a significant rise in net profit in the first half, benefiting from higher lending growth and a one-time gain from the sale of its equity investment in a brokerage firm.

In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the bank said its net profit for the first six months was 7.37 billion yuan, up 22.07 percent from a year earlier.

The bank's half-year results, coming ahead of its imminent initial public offering in Hong Kong, was better than the average profit level of the nation's 12 joint-stock lenders, which posted an average 19.3 percent year-on-year decline in net profit during the first half.