** Shares of electric and natural gas utility PPL Corp PPL.N down 0.5% at $36.30 premarket as it seeks capital raise

** Allentown, Pennsylvania-based subsidiary of PPL announces private offering of $1 bln 5-yr exchangeable notes

** It intends to use net offering proceeds to repay short-term debt and for general corp purposes

** PPL has ~739.7 mln shares outstanding for ~$27 bln market cap

** Earlier this month, PPL reported Q3 results and said data center demand increased 40% in Pennsylvania from previous qtr

** Through Tues close, PPL shares up 12% YTD compared to 17% gain in S&P 500 Utilities index .SPLRCU

** 11 of 17 analysts rate PPL "strong buy" or "buy", rest "hold"; median PT is $41, per LSEG data

(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))