CHINA Cosco Holdings Co,(Stock Code: 1919) owner of Asia's biggest container-shipping line, plans to sell as many as 1.78 billion shares in Shanghai to expand its logistic business and buy more ships, according to a regulatory filing.
The listing committee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission is meeting on Monday to review the Tianjin-based company's plan to sell an up to 20 percent stake during the public offering, the mainland securities watchdog said in a statement posted on its Website.
The HK$8.71 closing price of its Hong Kong-quoted stock yesterday valued the stake at HK$15.54 billion (US$1.99 billion), according to calculation by Bloomberg News.
China's foreign trade expanded 23.8 percent last year to US$1.76 trillion as the economy grew 10.7 percent, fueling the demand for transport.
Container port throughput in the country reached 93.61 million twenty foot equivalent units last year, a 23.8 percent increase from 2005 and the largest in the world, a preliminary prospectus posted on the regulator's Website said.
Cosco Holdings plans to use six billion yuan (US$784 million) of the Shanghai share sale proceeds to help its container-shipping subsidiary pay for 12 new vessels, the share sale document said.
Another 1.68 billion yuan will be used to buy a 51 percent stake of a logistics company from its state-owned controlling shareholder. It also earmarked another 401 million yuan for projects being developed by the company.
China International Capital Corp is arranging the share sale.