China Merchants Bank (CMB), the country's sixth largest, will use part of the money to be raised in a share issuing plan at Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses to set up overseas branches, China Daily reported Saturday.

The CMB said in a statement on Friday that it expected to raise 15 billion to 18 billion yuan through a rights issue of Hong Kong-listed H shares and Shanghai-listed A shares to boost its capital adequacy ratio.

It said it would issue no more than two shares for every 10 shares held by existing A-share and H-share holders, the newspaper reported. The share issuance is likely to be finished between the end of 2009 and early 2010, according to its statement.

The money would be used to open new overseas branches, train employees and improve CMB's IT system, the bank's president Ma Weihua was quoted as saying. The fund would not go for overseas merger and acquisition activities, he added.

The commercial lender is planning to launch a branch in London in the near future after it set up a representative office in the city last month.

CMB's spokeswoman Guo Xiaoli said Friday that there was still no timetable for it so far.

The bank aims to raise its core capital adequacy ratio to 8 percent from about 6.5 percent as of March end of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)