Biz Scene: Grapevine

Brokerage offering

Orient Securities Co, China's eighth largest brokerage by profits, has applied to raise about $4 billion in an A-share IPO as early as this year, Reuters reported citing unnamed sources.

The company plans to issue as many as 1.5 billion shares, or 31 percent of its enlarged capital, on the Shanghai bourse, in a move to raise about 30 billion yuan, the source said.

"After the IPO, Orient Securities will expand through mergers and acquisitions," said another source.

(China Daily 10/17/2007 page15)