China Citic Bank Corp plans to raise as much as 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) in a debt offering in Hong Kong, becoming the latest domestic financial institution to boost the city's nascent offshore yuan market, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Citic Bank, a mid-sized Chinese lender in which Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA has a 15% stake, said Tuesday that the bonds, with a maturity of no more than five years, will be sold to Hong Kong's retail and institutional investors before the end of 2013.

The Chinese bank, a unit of the conglomerate Citic Group, said the interest rates on the yuan bonds will be determined by market conditions and it will use the proceeds to issue loans and supplement its working capital.

The costs associated with issuing yuan bonds in Hong Kong can be as low as 0.4% for high-grade borrowers such as Chinese banks, government agencies and multinational foreign companies, thanks to the strong demand from investors world-wide for assets linked to an appreciating currency.

By contrast, the benchmark rate on one-year deposits in mainland China is at 3.50%.

Separately, Citic Securities Co, China's largest brokerage by market value and also a Citic Group unit, said in a statement it has received approval from the domestic securities regulator for its planned secondary listing in Hong Kong, although it has yet to seek approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The company's statement Monday to the Shanghai Stock Exchange comes after it said in late March its board approved a plan to list shares in Hong Kong, and a person familiar with the situation earlier said it could raise at least $1.5 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering.

The brokerage will seek listing approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange Thursday and aims to list on?Oct 6, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday, but added that the timetable is preliminary and will be subject to market conditions.

If it receives approval, the company will start gauging investors' interest in the IPO Monday and hold its roadshow from Sept 16-27, the person said, adding the retail offering is slated for Sept 22-27. The roadshow is the official bookbuilding period, when bankers take orders for the IPO and the final price for the deal is set.

Citic Securities, which plans to sell 1.14 billion Hong Kong dollar-denominated shares in the offering, is seeking cornerstone investors for its planned IPO, the person said.

The brokerage said in late March it planned to issue no more than 10% of its entire stock as Hong Kong-listed H shares, with a greenshoe option to increase the offering size by 15%.

It said it would use proceeds from the IPO to set up "overseas business platforms," including acquiring research, sales and trading networks, and for other overseas or cross-border operations.

Citic Securities International, CCB International (Holdings) Ltd, ICBC International Holdings Ltd, BOC International, Bocom International Securities Ltd, Agricultural Bank of China International, HSBC Holdings PLC, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBVA, Nomura Holdings Inc., Samsung Securities are handling the IPO, people familiar with the situation said earlier.