OCBC's Q4 net profit down 16 pct, takes small charge

SINGAPORE, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Singapore's third biggest bank, said its quarterly profit fell 16 percent from a year earlier when earnings were boosted by an asset sale, but core profits beat markets expectations due to strong loan growth and higher fee income.

The bank said it took another charge of S$10 million in the fourth quarter to account for losses from global credit market turmoil.

The small writedown was dwarfed by the S$221 million it took in the third quarter, far above the charges booked by its two Singapore-listed rival banks in that quarter.

The bank reported net profit of S$428 million ($303.5 million million) for the October-December period, down from S$510 million a year ago when the bottomline was boosted by an investment gain from the sale of assets.

Excluding exceptionals net profit was S$425 million.

Analysts were expecting OCBC to post full-year net profit of S$2.039 billion, according to average forecasts from 15 analysts in Reuters Estimates, which implied a fourth-quarter net profit of S$397 million.

DBS Group (DBSM.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Southeast Asia's biggest lender by assets, said earlier this month that quarterly profits fell 18 percent due to further writedowns linked to the global credit crisis.

OCBC shares performed better than its two rivals last year last year when concerns about the worsening credit crunch battered DBS shares, but they have fallen this year amid a broader stock market correction.

Singapore's central bank warned in December that the worsening of the recent credit squeeze or a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy may hurt profits of Singapore banks in 2008.

OCBC shares rose 7.7 percent last year, while United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rose 2.6 percent and DBS fell 8.4 percent. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; editing by Kim Coghill)