Xinhuanet shares soar in Shanghai trading debut

Shares of Xinhuanet.com, the online platform of China’s government mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency, soared by their daily limit in their trading debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The shares began changing hands at 33.23 yuan, 20 per cent higher than their initial public offer price of 27.69 yuan. The Beijing-based company had sold 51.9 million shares to raise 1.43 billion yuan (US$211 million) earlier this month.

Its post-listing net assets per share is 12.14 yuan, and earnings per share is 1.2 yuan based on last year’s net profit excluding non-recurring losses and gains, its prospectus said.

The company, 82.5 per cent owned by Xinhua, said in its listing prospectus it would use the listing proceeds to build cloud Internet platforms, mobile Internet and new media applications, conduct so-called “big data” analysis, and provide online education.

It has forecast in the prospectus that its net profit would rise between 5 and 12 per cent in this year’s first nine months to between 161.42 million and 172.18 million yuan.