Looking to lift its core equity "Tier One" capital ratio from about 5% (one of the lowest of European banks) to 6.3% (nicely above its 5.25% target) the bank is finally ramping up on raising $8.9 billion in a move that’s not only boosting stock markets today – but also arousing the interest of those with riyals, yen, renminbi and Singapore dollars to spare. Read on for more about the bank’s plans for courting key investors.

Barclays Plc, Britain's fourth-biggest bank, plans to sell 4.5 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) of stock mostly to investors in the Middle East and Asia to boost capital depleted by credit-related writedowns.

Barclays rose as much as 6.4 percent in London trading, the biggest gain in two months, after the London-based bank said in a statement it will offer 1.58 billion new shares to investors including institutions in Qatar, Singapore, China and Japan.

While half the new money will be used to bolster Barclay's capital after financial institutions worldwide wrote down $399 billion dollars linked to subprime-mortgage losses, the rest will be used for "business opportunities out there," including acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer John Varley told reporters.

"We expect the longer-term growth prospects of the company to be higher than its domestic U.K. peers," Merrill Lynch analyst John-Paul Crutchley wrote in a note to clients today. He has an "underperform" rating on the stock.

Barclays rose as much as 19.75 pence and traded up 5.9 percent to 329 pence at 9 a.m., valuing the bank at 21.6 billion pounds. The shares are down 35 percent this year, underperforming the eight-member FTSE All-Share Banks Index, which fell 27 percent.

Barclays will offer shares to Challenger, a company representing Qatar's royal family, Qatar Investment Authority, Temasek Holdings Pte, China Development Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.

Sumitomo will buy 500 million pounds of new stock at 296 pence a share. Barclays's individual investors will be able to "claw back" the additional 4 billion pounds of shares that overseas and institutional investors have agreed to buy at 282 pence apiece.

Continue reading on Bloomberg.com

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