Jiangxi to Tap Market for FundsThe mainland's largest copper producer, Jiangxi Copper, is considering issuing mainland A shares or new H shares to fund its expansion plans.Du Xinmin, the company's chief financial officer and secretary, said Jiangxi Copper would have first right of purchase of four profitable mines currently belonging to its parent company. It would not take on the debts of these mines nor responsibility for their current workforce. Mr Du said the fact that the H-share company, the listed subsidiary of the Jiangxi Copper Company, was now managed by the Jiangxi provincial government would be beneficial to its growth. The copper producer was managed until recently by the China Copper Lead Zinc Corporation and before that by the now defunct Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metals. Mr Du said the company was now the largest enterprise in Jiangxi. The provincial government would not interfere in day-to-day management and had promised to give the enterprise support in the form of tax concessions. The company, which was recently visited by Vice Premier Wu Bangguo, would also apply for a preferential loan from the central authorities to supplement its own financial resources. Mr Du said modernisation and expansion work on the Guixi Smelter Phase II project had been completed on schedule. Once the plant came into operation, the company would set a target of producing 200,000 tonnes of copper during the second half of the year. The company would also step up the pace of production at its Dexing Mine to achieve the target of processing 90,000 tonnes of ore per day. Mr Du said the company was improving the production process. It would increase the grade of copper concentrate and reduce the copper content in furnace slag. At the same time, Jiangxi Copper would strengthen sales and focus on expanding the markets for sulphuric acid and pyrite concentrate. It would make efforts to increase the production scale ratio of pyrite concentrate. The company posted an interim net profit of 30.99 million yuan (HK$29.22 million), compared with a loss of 44.08 million yuan for the same period in 1999. While it benefited from the cyclical rise in the price of copper, this had been offset by a fall in the price of pyrite concentrate. It recorded turnover of 1.47 billion yuan, a rise of 25.6 per cent over the 1.17 billion yuan achieved in the first half of last year. Earnings per share were 1.27 fen, compared with a loss of 1.81 fen last time. |
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