BEIJING, June 2 -- Yunnan Salt & Chemical Industry Co. said Thursday it is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for a listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange at the end of the month, becoming the third company to launch an IPO since China lifted its yearlong moratorium on share offerings in May.

    The chemical products company plans to sell 70 million yuan-denominated A shares, or 37.66 percent of its share capital after the offering, and make its stock-market debut June 28, Yunnan Salt & Chemical said in a statement.

    Subscription to the institutional tranche of 14 million shares, or 20 percent of the offering, will be June 8, while subscription to the retail tranche of 56 million shares, or 80 percent of the offering, will be June 13, the statement said.

    Regulators suspended IPO approvals in May last year as they began a program allowing listed companies to float their nontradable stock, which then accounted for about two-thirds of the stock market¡¯s capitalization. About 70 percent of firms have now completed or launched plans for conversion of their nontradable shares into tradable equity.

    Engineering project contractor China CAMC Engineering Co. became the first company to launch an IPO since the suspension on new share offerings was lifted. It said last week it is aiming to raise 444 million yuan (US$55.5 million) from a June 19 listing on the small and medium-sized enterprise board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

    Shenzhen Coship Electronics Co. said Wednesday it is also planning a listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange scheduled for June 27.

    Yunnan Salt said it will invest the proceeds in six projects, including four chemical projects. It said the projects have a combined cost of 533.8 million yuan.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)