China solar power firm eyes $60 mln stock listing

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By Lu Jianxin

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Shenzhen Topraysolar Co on Wednesday launched the retail share offer of its $60 million stock market listing, seeking to become the first Chinese specialist maker of solar power cells to list domestically.

A number of bigger Chinese solar energy firms, such as SunTech Power (STP.N) and Yingli Green Energy (YGE.N), have listed their shares on the stock market in the United States over the past several years.

But Topraysolar hopes to take advantage of increased interest in clean energy shares among Chinese investors.

The company said it had priced its offer on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange of up to 40 million A shares, or 25 percent of its expanded capital, at 10.79 yuan per share, meaning it could raise as much as 432 million yuan ($60 million).

Institutional subscriptions for the offer, managed by Guosen Securities, were taken last week and the issue is expected to draw strong demand despite a plunge of China's stock market over the past four months.

In late December, shares in Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co (002202.SZ), China's biggest maker of wind power generation equipment, far exceeded investor expectations by soaring 264 percent from their issue price in their Shenzhen market debut.

Goldwind's shares have been relatively immune to the overall market's slide, closing at 145.15 yuan on Wednesday compared to their 131.00 yuan finish on the day of their debut, and analysts' forecasts before the listing of a range of 90-100 yuan.

"Topraysolar's IPO will be a great attraction because of the concept of new energy and because investors may seek safety in the primary market amid the weakness of the secondary market," said analyst Cao Xuefeng at West China Securities.

"But Topraysolar's debut may be much weaker than Goldwind's -- market conditions have become quite poor now."

Topraysolar said it would invest funds raised in the IPO on expanding production. Its products are sold in 51 countries.

The company earned net profit of 36.72 million yuan in the first half of 2007, compared with 67.71 million for all of 2006 and 41.53 million yuan for 2005.

The IPO price values Topraysolar at about 30 times its diluted 2006 earnings per share. Goldwind is now trading at about 105 times 2007 earnings, according to Reuters Research. (Editing by Jan Dahinten)