* Net profit up 3.6 pct in 2013, slightly below target
* NPLs decrease, impairement charge rises (Adds details, background)
ALMATY, March 25 (Reuters) - Halyk Bank ,Kazakhstan's second-largest lender by assets, said on Tuesdayits net profit rose by 3.5 percent to 72.4 billion tenge ($398million) in 2013, slightly below its own forecast of 74 billiontenge.
Halyk, the most profitable of Kazakhstan's 38 banks, saidits assets grew by 4.1 percent last year, while net loans issuedto customers rose by 12.4 percent.
Non-performing loans (NPLs) remain a headache for theoil-rich nation's banking sector, which was hit hard by theglobal crisis due to its overexposure to external borrowing andthe bloated real estate market.
Hakyk said its 30-day and 90-day NPLs as of Dec. 31, 2013decreased to 18.2 percent and 18.0 percent respectively from19.7 percent and 18.1 percent on Sept. 30.
Net interest income before impairment charges increased by17.1 percent to 106.6 billion tenge. Impairment charges rose by69.4 percent in 2013, mainly due to a growing loan portfolio andageing NPLs, the bank said.
Last month Halyk bought the Kazakh subsidiary of HSBC for $176 million in cash.
Halyk said on Tuesday it expected the transaction to becompleted during this year. It said it would run SB HSBC BankKazakhstan JSC as a separate legal entity in the near term.
Halyk's largest single shareholder is Almex, a holdingcompany owned by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's middledaughter, Dinara, and her entrepreneur husband Timur Kulibayev.
$1 = 182.02 tenge (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Sophie Walker)