(Agencies/China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-09 10:25

China Coal Energy Co, the nation's second largest coal producer by sales, rose the most in more than one month in Hong Kong after mainland regulators set a date to review the company's mainland share-sale plan.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will review the plan for the company to sell as many as 1.53 billion (210.45 million) yuan-denominated A shares on Friday, the commission said yesterday.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed companies, including PetroChina and China Shenhua Energy, have gained after they announced plans to list on the mainland, where valuations are almost three times higher.

China, the world's biggest energy consumer after the US, uses coal to generate about 78 percent of its electricity.

The planned sale would be worth HK$37.87 billion based on yesterday's closing price of HK$24.75. The company will use 21.2 billion yuan on two coal and chemicals projects in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Heilongjiang province, the company said in a statement yesterday.

China Coal's profit for 2007 was 6.01 billion yuan under international accounting standards, it said yesterday. That's 90 percent more than the 3.17 billion yuan a year earlier.

China International Capital Corp and China Galaxy Securities Co are arranging the share sale.

The CSI 300 index of shares listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges increased about 162 percent last year after investors diverted about $2.2 trillion of household savings into equities. The CSI 300 was the world's best-performing major index in 2007.