(Yicai Global) March 5 -- Tianjin Binhai Rural Commercial Bank, whose earnings have deteriorated in recent years, is seeking new investors after just receiving a CNY5 billion (USD720.8 million) capital boost. The lender is sweetening its pitch with the offer of a 51 percent stake in itself.

Tianjin's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission gave no more details in a March 3 statement. At the end of last year, the bank completed a private equity placement with six state-owned companies to add to its core tier-one capital, an insider close to the bank told online news outlet The Paper.

As a result, its registered capital swelled to CNY9.1 billion from CNY5.8 billion, the Tianjin Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau said on Dec. 30.

Tianjin Municipal Government Investment and Tianjin Energy Investment Group became the bank's two largest shareholders that month. The municipal banking regulator also agreed that they should each be granted 10 billion shares in the lender, accounting for an 11 percent increase in total equity.

Some 68.4 percent of the lender belongs by state-owned firms. Private shareholders hold the rest.

The bank's net profit fell 42 percent in 2017 from a year earlier to CNY504 million on a 46 percent slump in revenue to CNY2.1 billion. In 2018 those figures dropped by a further 20 percent and 19 percent respectively.

Apart from weaker earnings, the bank has also gone through several personnel changes. Chairman Zhao Feng, who served eight years in that position, was removed last August, according to media reports. He was also ordered to liquidate the bank's non-performing assets worth tens of billions of yuan within three years.

Editor: Kim Taylor