HONG KONG/SHANGHAI - Dalian Port, north China's biggest port operator, said the China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved its A-share listing plan, but a formal approval is needed before kicking off bookbuilding.

The listing of the yuan-denominated A shares and the planned acquisition of assets from its parent company will mark the listing of the entire Dalian Port group.

"The Issue Review Committee of the CSRC convened the 178 meeting of the year 2010 on October 18 and has approved the application of the company to proceed with the A share issue," the company said in a statement.

"However, the formal approval of the CSRC has not been issued to the company," it added.

According to a A-share prospectus the company filed earlier with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Dalian Port proposed to raise about $US997 million by issuing up to 2.4 billion new shares, half of which are A-shares and the other half to the controlling shareholder PDA Corp.

Citic Securities is the underwriter for the planned offering.

The offering price would be at about $HK3.22, or a 10 per cent discount to the average trading price of the Hong Kong-listed H shares during the last 20 trading days prior to the publication of the prospectus on October 15.

Including the 1.2 billion shares to be issued to PDA Corp, the offer size will reach $US997 million.

Dalian Port H shares closed 1.2 per cent higher at HK$3.39 on Monday.

As part of the listing plan, Dalian Port will acquire assets from PDA Corp, its parent firm. The assets, which are expect to generate a return of 5.9 per cent, lower than the 9.4 per cent return on equity rate of existing assets, are valued at 19.7 times earnings based on the company's profit forecasts.

Dalian Port expects the enlarged group is to make a pro-forma net profit of 779 million yuan ($US117.2 million) for 2010, including a net profit of 637 million yuan from the existing assets and 142 million yuan from the injected assets.