Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, partly owned by Citigroup Inc., dismissed market talk that it would restart the plan of selling additional shares to boost capital.

"The bank has never said it would restart the additional shares sale plan," Saturday's Shanghai Securities News cited Shen Si, directors board secretary, as saying.

In March, the mid-sized bank announced a plan of raising some 20 billion yuan (2.9 billion U.S. dollars) by selling 800 million additional shares.

Shanghai Pudong Bank slid 3.86 percent to 14.19 yuan on Friday amid investor fears the shares sale would dilute earnings and despite announcement of 940 million yuan (137.6 million U.S. dollars) in tax cuts.

Chen Shuixiang, an analyst at China Jianyin Investment Securities, said there is little chance the shares issue plan could get regulatory approval under current market conditions.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index had plunged 68 percent from its record high in mid October last year amid concerns of oversupply of shares and of a sharp slowdown of the economy.

The bank said Friday its shareholders approved a plan to sell up to 10 billion yuan of hybrid bonds and up to 10 billion yuan of subordinated bonds to replenish capital.

Its capital adequacy ratio was at 8.47 percent at the end of September, a little above the regulatory requirement of 8 percent. But it was 0.68 percentage points lower than 9 months ago and well below the new regulatory requirement of 10 percent by the end of the year.

"If we could sell all the bonds within the year, our capital adequacy ratio would already be above 10 percent," Shen said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2008)