China Southern Power Grid Co., the second largest electricity distributor in China, plans to go public through an initial public offering (IPO), said its chairman Yuan Maozhen, in an interview on March 10 on the sidelines of the annual session of the CPPCC.

With assets totaling more than 300 billion yuan (US$44.1 billion), the company intends to work towards a unified listing of its core business, according to the chairman.

“But the timing is subject to the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and market conditions,” he said.

The company has recently completed transforming itself into a shareholding corporation.

The company’s electricity sales for February rose 4 percent from a year earlier. But the first two months of 2009 saw a decrease of 1 percent, a slower decline compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission may lift a five-month moratorium on initial public offerings after the Shanghai Composite Index rallied 20 percent this year to become the world’s best- performing stock market. But no timetable has been announced.

(China.org.cn March 10, 2009)