Despite foreign restrictions, the group is in talks with officials
Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the biggest corporate defaulter in emerging-market history, is hoping to list its China unit in Shanghai within two years, despite regulations barring foreign firms from listing on the mainland.
The embattled APP's wholly owned subsidiary, Sinar Mas Paper (China) Investment, had been in talks with Chinese government officials on the possible liberalisation of Shanghai's stock market to pave the way for the unit's listing on the A-share market, said Elbert Tang Tak Weng, the chief marketing officer and vice-managing director of the China unit.
'We prefer to list in Shanghai than Hong Kong. We are talking to securities firms on the preparation for the listing. We expect to list within two years,' Mr Tang said.
He said the central government had in the past expressed intentions of opening up the Shanghai exchange for foreign firms to list, although he was unaware of any concrete plans yet.
APP also planned to invest US$3 billion in new factories to raise its China production capacity to about five million tonnes next year, Mr Tang said.
This would give APP, which also has paper and pulp plants in Indonesia, an annual production capacity of about 11 million tonnes, more than the capacity of Asia's two largest paper firms, Nippon Paper and Oji Paper, both of Japan.