CITIC Securities share trading suspended

CITIC Securities Co., Asia’s biggest brokerage by market value, said yesterday trading in its shares was suspended in Shanghai, according to a notice published on the Web Site of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The company said its stock would be suspended all day, adding that it has undisclosed important information.

Dongfang Electrical share offer approved

DONGFANG Electrical Machinery Co. has received approval from the securities regulator to offer new A shares in a private placement to raise 8.87 billion yuan (US$1.18 billion), the Shanghai-listed company said yesterday.

The country’s largest manufacturer of power generators said it would sell up to 367 million new A shares, or 45 percent of its expanded share capital. The share issue will fund its acquisition of assets from its parent company worth 12 billion yuan. The assets include a 68.05 percent stake in its sister company, Dongfang Boiler, it has said.

CVC Capital buys stake in Zhongfu

BRITISH private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd. has invested US$225 million in a Shenzhen-listed plastic-bottle manufacturer, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The investment gives CVC a 29 percent stake in Zhuhai Zhongfu Enterprise Co., which supplies plastic bottles to Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., both companies told the newspaper. CVC, which said it has received all the necessary government approvals for the investment, and will become the biggest shareholder in Zhuhai Zhongfu. The deal has already closed.

Nickel producer Jinchuan plans IPO

JINCHUAN Group Ltd., China’s biggest nickel producer by output, said it is planning an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the company said it has set a timetable for the share offering and was choosing advisers, but it didn’t specify the listing date or location. The statement also didn’t say how much the company planned to raise from the share sale. An official at the company’s media office declined to comment on the plan yesterday. Last year, Jinchuan’s nickel production rose 12 percent to 101,000 metric tons, or 90 percent of the country’s total output. The company is also China’s largest cobalt producer by output.