UPDATE 1-CITIC Group ups cash portion of offer for CIFH

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HONG KONG Aug 28 (Reuters) - CITIC International Financial Holdings Ltd (0183.HK) (CIFH) said its major shareholder, CITIC Group, had sweetened its offer to privatise the Hong Kong-listed company, boosting the cash portion by 48 percent.

CITIC Group would raise the cash portion of its offer for CIFH to HK$2.16 per share plus one China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd (0998.HK) (CNCB) H share for each CIFH share, CIFH said in a statement late on Wednesday.

CITIC Group originally offered one CNCB H share plus HK$1.46 cash for each CIFH share.

"The offeror is of the view that the increased cash consideration will further enhance the attractiveness of the offer premium....and that it will engage the support of minority shareholders," CIFH said in a joint statement.

The cash payment will be increased to about HK$3.85 billion ($493.2 million) and the offeror has confirmed that there will be no further revision to the offer.

For full statement please see here

Trading in shares of CIFH, which was suspended on Wednesday pending the statement, will resume on Thursday.

In June, Chinese state-owned CITIC Group offered to buy its small Hong Kong-listed arm CIFH for $1.4 billion as part of an earlier announced deal that would boost Spanish bank BBCA's (BBVA.MC) toehold in fast-growing Asia. (US$1=HK$7.8) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; editing by Jonathan Hopfner)