By staff reporter Wang Rui

(Caijijng.com.cn) Former CITIC Pacific Ltd. (HK 00267) chairman Larry Yung raised HK$ 794 million via a private placement of 230 million existing shares in Poly (Hong Kong ) Investment Ltd. (HKEx: 00119), the investment firm said in a June 14 statement with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Yung's holding in the company was reduced to 2.04 percent from 14.08 percent following the transaction. The placement shares were priced at HK$3.45, a 7.26 percent discount on the June 11 closing price of HK$3.72 when the stock was suspended from trading. Shares resumed trading on June 15.

BOCI Asia Ltd. and Citigroup were the agents for the sale, the statement said, adding that no less than six parties took up the shares. Poly intends to use the funds to supplement working capital and finance future investments. 

On May 5, Yung placed 60 million existing shares in CITIC Pacific for HK$700 million. Yung still holds 360 million shares or 10 percent of the holding company, which invests in a broad range of sectors including mining, steel and property. 

Yung resigned in April as chairman of CITIC Pacific in the wake of a Hong Kong police investigation into how the company disclosed its 2008 derivatives losses.

CITIC Pacific had to be bailed out by its parent, state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group, after booking a 2008 loss of HK$12.7 billion. The company claims its executives made unauthorized derivatives bets on the Australian dollar and euro, which produced a HK$14.6 billion foreign exchange loss for the company.

Yung is the son of CITIC Group founder Rong Yiren, who helped attract many of the first Western investors to China and later became the country's vice president. Yung's cash-out paves the way for his formal retirement from CITIC Pacific at 67 years of age, a veteran Hong Kong banker told Caijing.

Full article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-06-15/110184391.html