BEIJING, May 15 -- CITIC Guoan Information Industry Co., part of conglomerate CITIC Group, said Friday its board has approved a plan to issue up to 120 million additional A shares to fund a salt lake project.

    CITIC Guoan Information, which lists yuan-denominated A shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, said in a statement it plans to issue the shares to up to 10 institutional investors, which may include securities investment funds, insurance companies and qualified foreign institutional investors.

    The company, which completed a reform to convert its nontradable stock to tradable form earlier this year, now has about 660 million outstanding A shares.

    The statement said the price of the additional shares won't be lower than the average intraday prices of the company's existing A shares in the 20 trading days prior to Friday's statement. Based on that price, CITIC Guoan Information is expected to raise around 1.296 billion yuan through the secondary share sale, analysts said.

    Its shares have risen 50 percent over the past month. They were at 14.75 yuan (US$1.84) Friday, up by the daily limit of 10 percent from Thursday's close.

    The company, whose businesses range from constructing cable television networks to distilling chemicals from salt lakes, said it will invest the proceeds in a salt lake development project in western China. The chemicals distilled from the lake include those used for making fertilizer and batteries.

    It will take CITIC Guoan Information about four years to recoup its investment in the project.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/ Agencies)