The outgoing chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland apologised for the company's financial troubles on Thursday as shareholders backed plans to raise fresh capital as part of a state bailout.

RBS chairman Tom McKillop said he was "profoundly sorry" for the human and financial cost borne by those who invested in the bank, one of three rescued by the British government last month after being hit by the financial crisis.

He spoke as RBS shareholders, holding an extraordinary general meeting in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, backed plans to raise 20 billion pounds (23.5 billion euros, 29.5 billion dollars) in fresh capital as part of the rescue deal.

They voted by more than 99 percent in favour, the bank said.

Under the recapitalisation plan, RBS will ask for 5.0 billion pounds from the British government in return for preference shares.

The embattled group will also seek 15 billion pounds from shareholders in a share placing underwritten by the Treasury. That means that the British government could end up owning a 60-percent stake in the bank.

McKillop, who retires from his post next year, told shareholders that in more than 40 years of working, "I have had many difficult experiences but none like this.

"The challenges we must now address as an institution, as a country and indeed as part of the world's financial system, are unprecedented," he said.

He added: "I, as chairman of RBS group, both personally and in the office I hold, am profoundly sorry about the position we have reached.

"I am sorry about the very real financial and therefore human cost that those who have invested in us now feel and recognise how seriously this has impacted shareholder confidence in our RBS."

Group chief executive Fred Goodwin, who quit last month and left the bank Thursday, added: "I am extremely sorry that this has come about."

The government bailed out HBOS, Lloyds TSB and RBS in a 37-billion-pound rescue plan in October after the banks were hit by the global credit crunch and resulting financial crisis.