UPDATE 1-Shanghai publisher plans China IPO this yr -sources

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By George Chen

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai Century Publishing Co Group, the city's top book publisher, is planning to list part of its assets to seek as much as 3 billion yuan ($417.4 million) through a domestic initial public offering of shares this year, people familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Shanghai Century, which controls more than a dozen publishing houses and a big distribution network for books and media products in eastern China, has hired local underwriters and auditors for its IPO preparations, said the sources, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.

It is not known what kind of assets Shanghai Century will list as Beijing usually does not allow domestic media firms to list content-related assets, such as editorial units, preferring instead business-related assets like print, advertising and distribution.

Shanghai Century's IPO proposal has won support from the city government, which controls the company, and China's publishing industry watchdog, the sources told Reuters.

But the company had not yet formally applied to China's securities regulator in Beijing, the sources said, adding the firm expected to list as early as in the first half of 2008.

A shareholder of state-owned Shanghai Century confirmed the company's IPO plan for this year but declined to comment further, while a representative for Shanghai Century could not immediately be reached for comment.

Beijing has encouraged publishing companies to raise capital from domestic IPOs since last year in a move aimed at boosting domestic players amid increasing foreign competition in China, where media-related industries are still tightly regulated by the ruling Communist Party.

Shanghai Century's smaller rival, Liaoning Publishing and Media Co (601999.SS), listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange late last year after Shanghai-based Xinhua Media (600825.SS) listed on the city's bourse earlier in 2007.

"If you said 2007 was a starting year for media IPOs, then I say you will see much more similar IPOs, including Shanghai Century, in 2008," one of the sources said.

"Since the government has shown its support with no doubt, why not do the IPO as soon as you can," he added.

The Shanghai city government controls more than 70 percent of Shanghai Century while its minority shareholders include several local asset managers, the city's news portal Eastday.com, and a local publisher in Zhejiang province near Shanghai.

Shanghai Century may seek foreign investment after its proposed IPO, while it had already been cooperating with many well-known foreign publishing houses on a project basis, the sources said.

Shanghai Century aimed to use part of the IPO proceeds to boost its digital media services, such as Internet-based book database and online subscriptions of Chinese magazines and newspapers, as it was keen to explore new profit streams, the sources said. ($1=7.188 Yuan) (Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)