Aluminum Corporation Of China (Chalco) (601600,2600.HK) plans to raise up to eight billion yuan from the issuance of a maximum of 1.25 billion shares to 10 designated investors, and the proceeds raised will be used for expansion and to boost working capital, reports yicai.com, citing a company filing.
The price of the private placement will be fixed at 90 percent of the average transaction price of the company's A shares in the 20 trading days before the date the price is fixed. The private placement shares have a lock-up period of 12 months.
Chalco will invest 4.7 billion yuan into an alumina project in Xingxian county, Shaanxi province, while 1.3 billion yuan will be used to expand its Zhongzhou subsidiary's Bayer Process facility in Henan province.
The facility in Xingxian county, which requires a total investment of 5.23 billion yuan, uses the Bayer Process technique and will be able to produce 800,000 tons of alumina upon the completion of construction.
After the expansion of the Zhongzhou facility, its alumina production capacity will hit 700,000 tons. Total investment in this facility will hit 2.99 billion yuan.
Chalco's total debt at the end of 2009 was 48.89 billion yuan, while it owed 39.40 billion yuan at the end of 2010.
Chalco had raised nine billion yuan from the issuance of one billion A shares last August.
According to the report, Chalco incurred interest expenses of 2.58 billion yuan in 2010.
Shares of Chalco rose 0.14 percent to trade at 7.35 yuan per share at 9:56 today.