Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) plans to raise 30 billion yuan (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) by sales of shares and bonds to improve its capital adequacy, the bank said in a statement on Friday.

The medium-sized lender, partly owned by Citigroup Inc, will sell 15 billion yuan of yuan-denominated shares in a private placement with institutional investors and 15 billion yuan of subordinated debt.

The funds will be used to bolster the bank's core capital and boost its capital adequacy ratio, which stood at 9.06 percent at the end of 2008.

The fund-raising plans are pending shareholder approval and the new shares will be priced at no less than 90 percent of the average price over the last 20 trading days, according to Saturday's China Daily.

The bank's 2008 net profit more than doubled from a year earlier to 12.5 billion yuan on rapid loan expansion. Its bad loan ratio dipped 0.25 percentage points to 1.21 percent at the end of last year.

The lender targets a 10 percent profit increase and loan growth of 28 percent in 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2009)