Everbright Bank Said to Plan $1.7 Billion Stock Sale

China Everbright Bank Co., the Chinese lender preparing for an initial public offering, plans to raise 11.4 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in a private placement of shares, a person familiar with the matter said.
Everbright Bank will sell 5.2 billion shares at 2.20 yuan each to institutional investors including Shanghai Chengtou Holding Co. and Guangdong Provincial Expressway Development Co., the person said, declining to be identified. The company said in a statement today it reached agreements with a number of major state-owned companies to raise more than 11 billion yuan.
Beijing-based Everbright Bank, the nation’s 11th-largest by assets, said the sale will boost its capital adequacy ratio to above the 10 percent regulatory minimum. The lender, whose public offering in Shanghai has been delayed for more than a year, said last month its capital ratio may have dropped below 9 percent after paying its first dividend in six years.
“The sale will remove the capital bottleneck that has constrained our expansion for a long period of time,” the bank said in the statement, adding that it plans to increase holdings of riskier assets to bolster profit. The release didn’t give details on pricing.
Shanghai Chengtou, the city’s water supplier, said in an exchange filing late yesterday that it will pay 792 million yuan for 360 million new shares in Everbright Bank. Guangdong Expressway said in a separate statement it will buy 240 million shares for 528 million yuan.
Shareholders
Everbright Bank aims to grow assets by 11.5 percent this year to 950 billion yuan, according to its 2008 annual report. The bank forecast 2009 profit would be little changed at 7.3 billion yuan and targeted a 10.5 percent capital adequacy ratio by the end of the year.
Central Huijin Investment Co., a unit of China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, controls 71 percent of Everbright Bank. Everbright Group and its affiliate own 13.8 percent, and other corporate investors hold the balance.
Everbright Bank, which received a 20 billion yuan cash injection in November 2007, last month paid a 2.2 billion yuan dividend to investors after boosting profit by 45 percent in 2008. The company is still awaiting approval for a plan to sell between 10 percent and 20 percent of its equity to the public after submitting a sale document to regulators on June 6, 2008.
China’s securities regulator resumed approvals of IPOs last month after halting sales last September following a stock market rout. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has rallied 79 percent this year, making it the second-best performer among the world’s primary indices.
Everbright Securities Co., another affiliate of parent China Everbright Group, is also awaiting final approval for its IPO from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.