Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- China Vanke Co., the country's largest publicly traded property developer, will seek as much as 5.9 billion yuan ($781 million) in a bond offering, after raising 10 billion yuan selling new shares last week.

The bonds will mature in three to seven years, the Shenzhen- based developer said in a statement to the city's stock exchange today, without giving a time frame for the offer. Vanke will use the money as working capital and to cut debt, it said. Vanke earlier sold shares to help fund residential projects.

``This provides Vanke with a new source of funds to expand,'' said Zhang Luan, a real estate analyst at Haitong Securities Co. in Shanghai.

Vanke and rival Gemdale Corp. are among six listed Chinese companies to announce bond sales this month, seeking more than 20 billion yuan between them. Chinese are turning to bond and stock markets for greater returns because the highest inflation rate in more than a decade has reduced the attraction of bank deposits.

Household savings fell by 22.6 billion yuan last month from a year earlier, according to the central bank.

Vanke last week raised 10 billion yuan selling new shares to fund property projects worth 31 billion yuan. Rising wages in the world's fastest-growing major economy are enabling more people to buy homes. The company's shares have more than tripled this year.

Vanke and Poly Real Estate Group Co., China's second-biggest developer by market value, are tapping capital markets after the central bank raised interest rates four times this year to cool inflation, increasing borrowing costs for new developments.

China is building only about 60 percent of the estimated 1 billion square meters a year of new housing needed to keep up with demand, according to China Merchants Securities Co analyst Jia Zuguo.

Vanke's stock fell 1.2 percent to 33.58 yuan in Shenzhen today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jiang Jianguo in Shanghai at jjiang@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 30, 2007 04:02 EDT