CHINA Everbright Bank will resume its initial public offering in Hong Kong by issuing up to 12 billion H shares, the lender said yesterday.

Up to 10.5 billion shares will be issued through an IPO and no more than 1.5 billion shares through over-allotment for bookrunners, the Shanghai-listed bank said in a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The mid-sized lender will kick off the IPO "at an appropriate time," according to the statement.

The capital raised from the H-share IPO will be used to replenish the bank's core capital, lift its capital adequacy ratio and improve its capabilities to guard against risks and make profits, the statement said.

According to a December statement by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, mid-sized lenders should keep a capital adequacy ratio at no less than 8.5 percent by the end of 2013. The bank said it had a core capital adequacy ratio of 8.24 percent at the end of September.

Headquartered in Beijing, Everbright Bank planned to raise US$6 billion from a Hong Kong IPO in 2011 but abolished the plan later that year due to the sluggish economy. In May, it again filed an IPO plan but postponed it.

The bank's net profit hit 23.6 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion) in 2012, up 30.74 percent from a year earlier, according to a preliminary report in January.