Minsheng 'planning to raise stake' in California bank

China Minsheng Banking Corp is weighing plans to increase its stake in UCBH Holdings Inc, the California lender operating under an enforcement order from banking regulators, to bolster its capital, said two people briefed on the matter.

Minsheng, China's first privately owned bank, plans to seek US regulatory approval to boost its holding in San Francisco-based UCBH to at least 50 percent from 9.6 percent, the people said, declining to be identified because the talks are private. Minsheng already has an option to raise its stake, to about 20 percent.

The Beijing-based bank "has been the vanguard inside China in terms of trying to be more consumer-oriented", said Daniel Rosen, principal of the Rhodium Group in New York and a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.