(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-21 21:03

China Coal Energy Ltd. (HK:1898), the country's second largest coal manufacturer, started its A-share initial public offering (IPO) roadshow running from January 21-23 in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The company said 75 percent of the shares would be offered online to individual and institutional investors on Friday. This sets the highest online subscription ratio record.

The remainder of the shares will be open to offline subscriptions from institutional investors from Thursday to Friday.

According to the prospectus released on January 7 by China Coal Energy, the company planned to issue no more than 1.525 billion A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, representing 11.51 percent of the company's capitalization after the IPO.

China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the company's IPO application on January 11.

The proceeds raised would be used for construction of major coal projects in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northeastern Heilongjiang Province, and supplementing the company's operating capital.

China Coal Energy was exclusively initiated by China National Coal Group Corp. in August 2006 and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2006.

China Coal Energy's assets were valued at 55.29 billion yuan with net assets of 31.88 billion yuan by the end of June 2007. The operating turnover reached 16.93 billion yuan and net profits hit 2.44 billion yuan in the first half of 2007.