Subscriptions for the China Railway Construction Corporation's
(CRCC) initial public offering will open on Feb. 25, according to
the prospectus launched on Friday.
Wholesale subscriptions for institutional investors will open on
Feb. 25 and 26, while the retail subscriptions would be received on
Feb. 26.
The shares would debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in early
March.
CRCC executives headed to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and
Beijing on Friday to solicit investors and gauge prices.
The company received formal approval from China Securities
Regulatory Commission on Thursday to issue no more than 2.8 billion
A shares through the Shanghai exchange, representing 25.93 percent
of the company's capitalization.
The CRCC is also preparing to issue another 1.8 billion to 2.07
billion shares in Hong Kong and the total capital raised in
Shanghai and Hong Kong was expected to reach 4 billion U.S.
dollars.
It said the capital raised would be used to procure construction
facilities, expand the manufacturing capacity of mechanical
equipment and invest in properties and railways.
The CRCC established its name by building the Qinghai-Tibet
railroad, the Shanghai maglev rail line and the Beijing-Kowloon
Railway. It also took the largest share in the bidding for civil
engineering projects on the long-delayed express railway linking
Beijing and Shanghai.
The company's total assets amounted to 155 billion yuan by the
end of November 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)
