ChinaEverbright Bank Co. Ltd. applied for its shares to resume tradingon the Hong Kong stock exchange after a shareholder increased its stake in thebank.

The bank said July 14 that its substantial shareholder ChinaEverbright Group Ltd. raised its stake in the lender to around 28.88% afteracquiring a further 425,446,860 shares in the bank from June 27 to July 13.

China Everbright Group acquired 379,516,860 of the bank's Ashares via secondary market transactions and 45,930,000 of its H shares throughsouthbound trading. The group plans to continue to increase its shareholding inChina Everbright Bank in the next three months, but will stop short of reaching30% of the total issued shares of the bank.

Following the stake increase, China Everbright Group and itssubsidiaries held 13,482,684,020 shares of China Everbright Bank.

Trading in China Everbright Bank's shares was July 14 prior to thepublic disclosure of the details of the stake increase, which constitutedinside information. The bank said it made an application for the resumption oftrading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, effective 9 a.m. Hong Kong time July15.