(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-28 15:29

Shareholders of China Everbright Bank have approved a capital injection from the government, the bank said on Wednesday, paving the way for the mid-sized lender to sell equity stakes to strategic foreign investors.

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The statement did not give the size of the cash infusion, but the bank's chairman, Tang Shuangning, said earlier this month Everbright hoped to get 200 billion yuan (US$27 billion) from Central Huijin, part of China's newly established sovereign wealth fund.

The bank said it would speed up its search for strategic investors and aimed to float shares as early as the first half of next year.

Everbright is saddled with debts in part because of its takeover of troubled China Investment Bank in the late 1990s.

But overseas lenders, keen to get into China, have been interested in Everbright because of its size and geographical reach in a nation where many high-profile domestic banks have already teamed up with foreign financial institutions.

Standard Chartered Bank has been in talks with Everbright for more than three years over possibly taking an equity stake, according to banking sources.

Everbright Bank is 21 percent-owned by Hong Kong-listed China Everbright Ltd, an Everbright Group unit. The Asian Development Bank is the only foreign stakeholder, with two percent.