CHINA Coal Energy Co, the nation's second-largest coal producer by sales, may raise about US$2.9 billion in a share offering in Shanghai.
The bottom line is to fund expansion as the country's demand for energy surges, Bloomberg News reported.
China Coal will sell as many as 1.53 billion yuan-denominated A shares in Shanghai, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
The sale would be worth 22.2 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) based on the closing price of HK$14.58 (US$1.86) in Hong Kong on Friday.
"The company believes that the A-share issue will establish a new financing platform," China Coal said in the statement.
It "will benefit the company and the shareholders as a whole in the long term."
China's energy demand will rise about four percent annually to the equivalent of 2.7 billion tons of standard coal by 2010, the government said in April.
China was a net importer of coal in January for the first time as economic growth increased demand. About 78 percent of China's electricity comes from coal.
China Coal joins bigger rival China Shenhua Energy Co in returning to the mainland to list.
China, the world's second-largest energy user, is pushing its Hong Kong-listed companies to sell shares in Shanghai or Shenzhen to cool stock markets that have quadrupled in value since the start of 2006.
China Coal's Hong Kong-listed shares have surged 189 percent this year, compared with the 16-percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
China Coal said the offering is subject to regulator and shareholder approval.