China Datang Group, the nation's second-largest power generator, plans to issue corporate bonds and possibly shares to help fund capital expenditure that will run into tens of billions of yuan this year and next.
President Zhai Ruoyu said the state-owned company's financing plan this year might include floating corporate bonds and shares through its listed vehicles to pay for expansion of its generation capacity.
'Such financing will mainly be used for plant construction,' he said on the sidelines of the China People's Political Consultative Conference.
Shareholders of the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed unit, Datang International, last year approved the plan to issue up to six billion yuan (HK$6.58 billion) of bonds.
The group set a target in 2006 to generate 80,000 megawatts by 2010 but could easily surpass that. Mr Zhai said it expected to add 10,000 megawatts this year, a 15.4 per cent increase on the 65,000 megawatts it had at the end of last year.
Mr Zhai said the group would put more than 10 billion yuan into capital expenditure this year. However, a Citigroup research report said the actual figure could be much higher.
Datang International alone is expected to spend 25 billion yuan this year, the same as last year, according to Pierre Lau, the brokerage's head of regional utilities research.