Bank of East Asia (BEA) is preparing a capital injection into its Chinese mainland branch to support its capital structure and business operations, a company source told Caixin Monday.

The move follows a profit warning for the six months ending June 30 issued by BEA last week, citing a downturn in commercial property markets outside of China's top-tier cities.

The Hong Kong-based bank said it expected to write down four loans related to commercial property projects in China with a nominal value of HK$6.2 billion ($791.75 million). The bank forecast “significant post-tax impairment losses” of between HK$2.5 billion and HK$3 billion.

The risky loan assets accounted about 4% of BEA’s loans to mainland-based customers, which totaled HK$149.7 billion by the end of 2018, a company report showed. Mainland business generated HK$674 million of net profit for the bank last year.

BEA reported a total net profit of HK$6.5 billion for 2018. Its total assets stood at HK$839.5 billion at the end of the year.