China Minsheng Banking Corp has raised a record 18.2 billion yuan (around 2.3 billion U.S. dollars) by re-issuing shares at 9.08 yuan per share, the Beijing Times reported on Monday.

"Minsheng won't be bothered by its capital adequacy ratio for the next two years," one analyst said.

The country's first private bank raised its capital adequacy ratio to 8.2 percent from 7.46 percent to meet the regulatory requirement by selling hybrid capital bonds at the end of 2006.

Liu Yonghao, once Forbes' richest man in China and the president of New Hope Group, remains the largest shareholder of China's Minsheng after the re-issuance of shares, according to the bulletin released by Minsheng.

New Hope Investment Co. Ltd and Sichuan Nanfang New Hope Industry Co., Ltd, both subsidiaries of New Hope Group, secured 410 million shares in the re-issuance.

Six hundred million shares, the maximum amount allowed to a single investor, was given to both China Life Insurance Company and Ping An Insurance of China.

The annual report of Minsheng released on the same day shows that the company's total assets had reached 700.4 billion yuan by the end of 2006, up 26 percent on the previous year, with deposits at 583.3 billion yuan and loans (including discounts) at 447.4 billion yuan.

Minsheng recorded a net profit of 3.8 billion yuan last year with its non-performing loans standing at 5.5 billion yuan.

Minsheng largely attributed its good performance in 2006 to its continued expansion of business, which gain greater profits offered by the enlarged margin between deposit interest rates and lending interest rates, innovation of products and services and better cost management.

The China Minsheng Bank, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 2000, is a shareholding commercial bank focused on aiding non-state-owned industrial and commercial enterprises.