A-share issue to raise $55m

Yunnan Dali Paper Manufacturing Co has issued 15.78 million A shares to raise 59 million yuan (about HK$55.09 million) for expansion projects.

The shares were priced at 3.75 yuan each, Xinhua (the New China News Agency) said yesterday.

About 45 per cent of the proceeds would be used for the company's new 74.8 million yuan box paper production project, which has an annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes.

When fully on-stream, the project was expected to bring in profit of 16.7 million yuan a year.

Yunnan province needed 60,000 tonnes of cigarette packaging paper a year by 2000, the agency said.