Hidili Industry International Development, an integrated coking coal firm, has raised the top end of its pricing for its initial share sale by 3 per cent due to strong demand from investors, according to market sources. The move allows the firm to raise an additional HK$108 million, for a total of HK$4.1 billion, if the shares are offered at HK$6.83 each, the high end of the price range. Hidili will use the funds to acquire coking coal resources and build plants on the mainland. Coking coal is used in the production of steel. 'The increase in the ceiling price may be because most of the orders came in near the previous top price,' said a source from an asset management company. He said the sale was already more than 10 times oversubscribed. 'We were given a price cap of US$20 million,' the source added. In the deal arranged by UBS, the Sichuan company is selling 600 million shares, 83.3 per cent of which are new. The rest of the shares are being offered by Baring Capital and founder Xian Yang, the firm's controlling shareholder, at between HK$5.05 and HK$6.83 per share. The initial range topped out at HK$6.65. The company brought in four tycoons as cornerstone investors, including Chinese Estates Holdings chairman Joseph Lau Luen-hung, Bank of East Asia chairman David Li Kwok-po, Henderson Land Development chairman Lee Shau-kee and Kerry Group's Robert Kuok, who each subscribed to US$20 million worth of shares. Hidili made a profit of 89.68 million yuan last year, down 59.5 per cent from 2005. The company said 74 per cent of the listing proceeds, or up to HK$3.03 billion, would be used in acquiring coking coal resources in Liupanshui, Guizhou province. A further HK$779 million would be set aside for building a coking plant in the same city with an annual production capacity of one million tonnes. Meanwhile, the Securities and Futures Commission has been looking into a mysterious advertisement published on Wednesday in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, offering to sell 20 million shares of Hidili, although the initial public offering is not scheduled to launch until Monday. It is illegal to advertise share sales without regulatory approval. Trading in the stock will begin on September 21.