International Mining Machinery Holdings, a maker of coal-mining machinery, hopes to increase its product range from net proceeds of a planned HK$3.32 billion listing in Hong Kong next month.
International Mining is selling 520 million shares and the indicative price range for the offer is set at between HK$4.88 and HK$6.38 a share, according to people familiar with the offering.
The business only took off after a number of acquisitions over the past few years, said chief executive Allen Chan (right), a Hongkonger who moved to China in the 1970s.
The Heilongjiang-based company has about a 54 per cent share of the market for two pieces of machinery - the roadheader, which crushes the ground; and the shearer, which removes the coal from rock faces - since it bought state-owned firms Jixi Coal Mining Machinery and Jiamusi Coal Mining Machinery in 2006.
In 2008, International Mining bought Huainan Longwall Coal Mining Machinery, a producer of armoured face conveyors (AFCs), which run along a coal face with a shearer mounted on it.
Roadheader sales contributed 44.7 per cent of total revenue at the end of 2008, with shearers contributing 27.2 per cent and AFCs 11 per cent. A large increase in machinery output is planned over the next two years.
