Tuesday, January 29, 2008

China Minsheng Banking Plans $2.08 Billion Bond Sale (Update1)

By Jiang Jianguo and Luo Jun


Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- China Minsheng Banking Corp., the nation's first privately owned bank, plans to raise as much as 15 billion yuan ($2.08 billion) selling bonds in the country to increase its capital.

The company will sell 10-year bonds attached with call warrants to buy shares, it said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange today. Shareholders will vote on the plan on Feb. 18.

China's banks, having raised $23 billion in share sales last year, are making more loans and expanding into wealth management in the world's fastest-growing major economy. Minsheng, founded in 1996 by 59 investors, including pig-feed tycoon Liu Yonghao, has averaged 40 percent annual profit growth since 2002.

Minsheng's capital adequacy ratio, or unimpaired capital as a percentage of risky assets, stood at 10.84 percent as of Sept. 30. The Beijing-based bank also plans to set up a credit card unit for 1.6 billion yuan, today's statement said.

Minsheng's shares have lost 13 percent this year, performing worse than the 11 percent drop in the benchmark CSI 300 Index.

No comments: