Dalian Port is preparing to launch a mainland initial public offering to help fund the acquisition of assets from its parent firm, which itself is seeking to consolidate ports in the northeast of the country.
The Hong Kong-listed state-backed operator of petroleum, container and vehicle terminals planned to acquire assets from its parent, PDA Corp, said Dalian Port chairman Sun Hong, who is also PDA's general manager, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
Only about 33 per cent of PDA's total assets of more than 30 billion yuan (HK$34.17 billion) are listed, but it is too early to tell how much of them will be sold to the listed vehicle, as well as how big and how soon the planned share sale will be.
'We are in talks with several investment banks about our plan, but it is not possible for it to be executed this year,' said Sun.
PDA, the operator of China's third-largest port by assets, wants to take a leading role in consolidating Liaoning's ports, a move being pushed by the provincial government.
The plan is in line with the central government's proposal to build a coastal economic zone in Liaoning, which is striving to expand its role as a northeast Asian transshipment hub.
'For historical reasons, northeast China's manufacturers were far from the south and the export markets and had to bear high logistics costs,' said Sun. 'But with the new economic belt, partly to house the transfer of manufacturing from overseas and other parts of China to the region, there are new opportunities for port operators.'