China Everbright Bank Co is planning to rope in eight institutional investors through a private placement of 5.2 billion shares as part of its efforts to expand its capital base, a senior executive of the bank said yesterday.

"The bank could raise over 11 billion yuan from the share sale, which has been cleared by the shareholders and is now awaiting approval from the regulator," the bank official, who declined to be identified, told China Daily.

The long-anticipated introduction of strategic investors will help shore up the lender's capital adequacy ratio to above 10 percent, he said.

The Beijing-based commercial lender, the nation's 11th largest by assets, has been grappling with capital strain problems in recent years. In a statement in June, the bank said its capital ratio may have dropped below 9 percent after paying the first dividend in six years, and is barely above the required 8 percent.

In the annual report released in May, the bank said it aimed to raise its capital adequacy ratio from the then 9.1 percent to 10.5 percent by the end of the year by roping in financial investors and issuing bonds.

Among the eight institutional investors, Shanghai Chengtou, a local water supplier listed in Shanghai Stock Exchange, said in a statement that it would spend 792 million yuan to buy 360 million new shares at a price of 2.2 yuan per share.