China Everbright Bank, a mid-sized lender, said on Wednesday it would relaunch plans to list shares in Hong Kong, after earlier aborted attempts at an overseas stock offer.

The Beijing-based bank is looking to raise $1.5 billion from the planned initial public offering, its third attempt to list on Hong Kong's stock exchange, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing sources.

The bank's board had approved launching the IPO "at an appropriate time" by issuing up to 12 billion shares, it said in a statement, without elaborating on the size of the deal.

But the proceeds would be used to replenish its capital and improve profitability, it said in the statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, where it is already listed.

The bank first raised its Hong Kong IPO plan in 2011, seeking to raise as much as $6 billion, but later scrapped it due to weakness in the domestic economy, state media has reported.

The bank revived the listing plan last year, scaling back the size to around $1.4 billion, but later postponed it due to market conditions, according to previous media reports.

Everbright Bank said in January that its net profit, based on preliminary calculations, jumped 30.74 percent year-on-year to 23.6 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) in 2012 on improved margins.

Shares of the bank were down 1.86 percent to 3.16 yuan in Shanghai trading on Wednesday afternoon, following weakness in other banking stocks.

channelnewsasia.com