Huadian heads new round of China IPOs

Electrical generator Huadian Power became the first company to announce its initial public offering Monday following the resumption of IPOs after a five-month freeze on new share offerings. The announcement from the Shandong-based company follows the introduction of a new IPO pricing system by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. That stipulates companies must use conventional book-building methods to set their prices after consulting at least 20 institutional investors, or 50 if the issue is worth more than RMB400m (US$48m). Huadian said it expected to raise RMB2bn in the offering, selling up to 765m shares, probably in February. The news was met by sharp selling on the Shanghai exchange, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index losing 2.3% to close at its lowest level since May 25, 1999.