Huadian plans US$233m China offering

Huadian Power International announced it aims to raise up to RMB1.93bn (US$233.4m) from its first domestic share offering after pricing its stocks at a discount to its peers. Announcing a price range of RMB2.3-2.52, China International Capital said Haudian would sell up to 765m shares. The announcement was preluded a fall in share prices of domestically listed producers such as China Yangtze Power and Shanghai Electric fall amid concern that investors would divert funds to Huadian. At the bottom of Huadian's range, the price is equal to 11 times 2003 per-share earnings, compared with an average 31 times for other power companies. Huadian is the first company to float shares domestically following a five-month freeze on share offerings to allow the introduction of new rules giving institutional investors more say in setting offer prices.