Subscriptions for the China Railway Construction Corporation's (CRCC) initial public offering will open on Feb. 25, according to the prospectus launched on Friday.

Wholesale subscriptions for institutional investors will open on Feb. 25 and 26, while the retail subscriptions would be received on Feb. 26.

The shares would debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in early March.

CRCC executives headed to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing on Friday to solicit investors and gauge prices.

The company received formal approval from China Securities Regulatory Commission on Thursday to issue no more than 2.8 billion A shares through the Shanghai exchange, representing 25.93 percent of the company's capitalization.

The CRCC is also preparing to issue another 1.8 billion to 2.07 billion shares in Hong Kong and the total capital raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong was expected to reach 4 billion U.S. dollars.

It said the capital raised would be used to procure construction facilities, expand the manufacturing capacity of mechanical equipment and invest in properties and railways.

The CRCC established its name by building the Qinghai-Tibet railroad, the Shanghai maglev rail line and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway. It also took the largest share in the bidding for civil engineering projects on the long-delayed express railway linking Beijing and Shanghai.

The company's total assets amounted to 155 billion yuan by the end of November 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)