UPDATE 1-China Everbright Bank eyes HK listing -paper

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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Chinese financial conglomerate China Everbright Group aims to list its commercial banking arm in the Shanghai A share market and then possibly Hong Kong, state media said on Friday.

Everbright Securities, the group's brokerage unit, is looking at a domestic share offering in March or April, Everbright Group chairman Tang Shuangning was quoted in state newspapers, including the Central Bank-run Financial News, as saying.

Everbright Group holds stakes in Everbright Bank and Everbright Securities through Hong Kong-listed China Everbright Ltd (0165.HK), whose share price has surged more than three-fold over the past year on expectations of the listings.

Everbright Bank is 21 percent-owned by China Everbright Ltd. The Asian Development Bank is the only foreign stakeholder, with 2 percent.

China Everbright Ltd holds 39.31 percent of Everbright Securities, which has said it aimed to issue up to 520 million A shares.

Tang said Everbright Bank, after receiving a 20 billion yuan capital injection from Central Huijin, part of China's newly established sovereign wealth fund, was still facing a capital shortfall of about 5 billion yuan.

The bank plans to sell subordinated debt to boost its capital adequacy ratio above 8 percent, the minimum required for a stock listing, from the current 7.11 percent, Tang said, adding the bank also planned to bring in strategic investors before an IPO.

Everbright Bank also plans to list in Hong Kong, but that would happen after it is listed in the A share market, Tang said. He did not give a timing on the bank's A share listing.

Everbright Bank generated a net profit of 4.57 billion yuan in 2007, up 65.6 percent year on year, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday. Total assets reached 725.7 billion yuan at the end of last year, with non performing loan ratio at 4.46 percent.

Everbright Securities also saw a surge in its 2007 earnings, thanks to the booming A share market, the newspaper said. Its net profits hit 4.63 billion yuan last year, it said.

Everbright Group, which also has an insurance arm that collected premium of 1.67 billion yuan last year, generated a profit of 15.4 billion yuan in 2007, the newspaper said. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Anne Marie Roantree)