HK`s Chia Hsin to raise US$55m

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Chia Hsin Cement Greater China Holding Corp. said Tuesday it is seeking to raise HK$423.3m (US$55m) from its initial public offering. The company, which produces and sells cement, said in its prospectus it is offering 286 million shares at HK$1.48 apiece, of which 200.2 million are new shares and 85.8 million are existing shares.
Of the total share offering, 257.4 million shares will be set aside for institutional investors, while 28.6 million shares are earmarked for retail investors.

As of Oct 31, the listing candidate had outstanding borrowings of about US$253.9m, comprised of unsecured short-term bank loans of US$2.42m, a secured long-term bank loan of about US$123m and unsecured loans from holding companies of about US$128.4m, according to its prospectus.  The company expects profit for 2003 at "not less than" US$15.2m. For the first six months of this year, it posted a net profit of US$6.80m on revenue of US$35.2m.  In 2002, its net profit rose 28 per cent to US$10.3m from the year-earlier profit of US$8.04m, while revenue increased to US$67.8m from US$64.1m.  Chia Hsin Cement expects net proceeds from the share issue to total HK$283.2m, of which HK$233.4 million will be used to construct its second cement production line in mainland China.  Some HK$31.1 million will finance the construction of a new jetty, and US$7.8m is allotted for the expansion of its sales network and implementation of its sales strategy. The remaining HK$10.9m will be used as general working capital.