JAKARTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Bank Mandiri, Indonesia's biggest lender, said on Monday its fourth quarter net profit rose 47 percent from a year ago as loan growth remained strong in Southeast Asia's top economy.
The bank's fourth-quarter net profit was 4.4 trillion rupiah ($453.19 million), compared with 3 trillion rupiah in the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculations showed based on published full-year and nine-month results.
State-owned Mandiri, which aims to expand its reach into Southeast Asia and China, reported better-than-expected full year 2012 net profit of 15.5 trillion rupiah. Analysts had forecast Mandiri's 2012 net profit at 14.58 trillion rupiah, according to Thomson Reuters data.
This compared with a net profit of 12.2 trillion rupiah in the previous year.
Shares in Mandiri rose 2 percent ahead of the results, having gained 20 percent in 2012 to outperform a wider Jakarta index that rose around 13 percent in the same period. ($1 = 9,709 rupiah) (Reporting by Fathiya Dahrul; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)
