BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's biggest commercial lender, on Thursday reported a net profit increase of 4.1 percent last year.

The company's net profits attributable to shareholders stood at 297.68 billion yuan (44.26 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, according to its financial report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The profit growth was faster than an increase of 2.8 percent in 2017.

Business revenue rose 6.5 percent to 773.79 billion yuan, and total assets rose 6.2 percent to 27.7 trillion yuan at the end of 2018.

At the end of last year, the non-performing loan ratio was 1.52 percent, down 0.03 percentage points from the end of 2017.

The ratio had dropped for eight consecutive quarters for ICBC, the report said.

ICBC shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange dropped 0.06 percent on Thursday to 5.45 yuan.