China Guodian to buy Inner Mongolia coal miner

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Power generator China Guodian Corp plans to buy a 51 percent stake in Pingzhuang Coal Group for 2.1 billion yuan ($294 million), according to a filing by Pingzhuang Coal subsidiary Inner Mongolia Pingzhuang Energy Co Ltd 000780.SZ.

China Guodian, one of China's five major power generating groups, will buy the stake from the economy commission of the Chifeng city government in Inner Mongolia, where the miner is based.

Pingzhuang Coal Group has annual coal production capacity of about 13 million tonnes, mainly of thermal coal, according to the group's Web site, www.pzcig.com.

Shares in Inner Mongolia Pingzhuang Energy were up 5 percent at 15.43 yuan in late morning trade, compared with a 3.3 percent drop in China's benchmark share index .SSEC.

China is recovering from its worst power shortage in decades, triggered by unusually harsh winter weather in parts of central and southern China that disrupted coal supplies.

Coal is the single largest source of energy in the country, fuelling about 70 percent of its power generating capacity.

The Chifeng government will seek the allocation of an additional 1 billion tonnes of provincial government-controlled coal resources to Pingzhuang Coal Group after the transaction, according to the filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The Chifeng government and China Guodian will also jointly build a coal chemical plant with with annual production capacity of 300,000 tonnes of synthetic ammonia and 520,000 tonnes of urea, with construction due to begin this spring, the filing said.

The deal is pending approval by state asset and securities regulators. ($1=7.139 Yuan) (Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)