Liaoning industrial park
China Minmetals Corp, the nation's largest metal trader, recently began development of an industrial park in Yingkou, Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Construction will last 15 years and require an investment totaling 30 billion yuan. The park is projected to provide 106,000 jobs when complete.
Covering an area of 30.4 sq km, the park will include the 20-sq-km Yingkou Coastal Industrial Base and a metallurgical and heavy equipment manufacturing zone of 10.4 sq km.
Zhou Zhongshu, president of China Minmetals, said the park will include equipment manufacturing, steel processing, precision machinery and instrument manufacturing, new materials processing, logistics and commercial services.
Minmetals has signed investment agreements with one domestic and two overseas companies to help fund the park.
France's Air Liquide, Kanematsu Corp from Japan and domestic company Leadreits are expected to invest more than 6 billion yuan.
Alibaba share sale
Alibaba.com, the business-to-business (B2B) segment of e-commerce company Alibaba Group, plans to begin its first global road show on October 15, according to the China Business News.
The first open share sale will begin as early as October 22. Shares will be priced on October 26 and listed on November 6.
The company plans to ultimately issue around 859 million shares. It held a promotion in Hong Kong on October 8.
Proceeds from the issue are to be used mainly to fund global expansion, improve its B2B platform, and develop its consumer e-commerce website Taobao and online payments arm Alipay.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the main underwriters for the initial public offering. Alibaba's B2B operation will net 1.159 billion yuan in 2007, up from last year's 357 million yuan, a research report released by Morgan Stanley predicted.
Shenhua growth plan
China Shenhua Energy Corp, which listed its shares in Shanghai on October 9, said it aims to expand through mergers and acquisitions as well as organic growth.
The firm, China's largest coal producer, will obtain assets from its parent group and also wants to buy more high-quality coal operations in China by taking part in the consolidation of the domestic industry, Chairman Chen Biting said in a statement.
In addition, "we want to carefully and selectively buy foreign assets, focusing on assets that have potential and fit with the company," Chen said.
Shenhua raised 66.58 billion yuan in China's largest domestic initial public offering last month, attracting 2.7 trillion yuan in subscriptions.
Shenhua Group, the parent group of Shenhua Energy, is a 100 percent State-owned venture created in 1995. Its scope of businesses range from coal, power, heat, liquefied coal oil, coal-based chemical industries to railways and ports.
LCD investment
BOE Technology Co Ltd and two Chengdu-based firms will co-invest 3 billion yuan to build a 4.5-generation LCD panel manufacturing facility in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Beijing-based firm said in a statement last week.
The 4.5G facility will manufacture liquid crystal display (LCD) panels smaller than 14.1 inch used in laptops, automobile electronics and portable multimedia players.
BOE, Chengdu Hi-Tech Investment Group Co and Chengdu Industrial Investment Co will establish a joint venture with registered capital of 30 million yuan. BOE will spend 9.54 million yuan for a 18.18 percent stake and the two Chengdu-based firms will hold the remainder.
It was the latest move for BOE's new strategy announced last month to invest a total of 3.1 billion yuan to build a plant to make LCD panels smaller than 14 inches.
BOE now focuses on 5G LCD panel manufacturing for 17-inch monitors and TVs, which resulted in huge losses to the company due to competition from rivals such as Sharp Corp and Samsung Electronics.
CNPC taps into Chad
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country's largest oil producer, is to invest in a joint venture refinery in Chad.
CNPC Service and Engineering Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNPC, has signed an agreement with the government of Chad to jointly invest in a refinery company north of N'Djamena, the country's capital, according to an announcement posted on the website of CNPC.
The subsidiary will be in charge of all engineering construction and will adopt Chinese design specifications, manufacturing standards and mechanical equipment, said the announcement.
CNPC did not reveal how much it will invest or when the project will start.
Chad began to produce oil in 2003 and has to date discovered 13 oilfields. It has no refineries and imports refined oil from overseas.
The CNPC subsidiary inked overseas service contracts worth $3.09 billion in 2006, up 22 percent from the previous year.
New shares to buy coal mine
China Resources Power Holdings Co raised HK$4.86 billion by selling new shares to fund its first coal mine purchase, sources said.
An analyst from a US investment bank said the company's move toward production "makes a lot of sense as coal prices are likely to keep rising in the near future".
The company is seeking to source coal from its own mines to curb the impact of the rising cost of coal, the biggest source of energy in China, analysts said.
The company's average unit cost in the first half was 167.4 yuan a megawatt-hour, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier. At the beginning of the year, the company targeted a rise in unit fuel cost this year of no more than 7 percent from last year's 166 yuan a megawatt-hour. But by August, Chief Executive Wang Shuaiting said it was aiming to keep the cost unchanged.
The company in late August raised its 2007 capital funding budget to HK$10 billion from HK$7 billion, to include partial payment for stakes in three power plants it bought earlier in the year. By late August, the company had spent HK$3.35 billion of its total budget for the year.
(China Daily 10/15/2007 page6)