Beijing Capital Land Ltd, a major real estate developer in the Chinese capital, is expected to float 564 million H shares in Hong Kong this week.

It will be the first public offering by a mainland company on the main board of Hong Kong's stock market since the outbreak of SARS in April.

The company aims to raise 1.14 billion yuan (US$137.3 million) of funds through the offering, which will be used to develop some of its real estate projects, said Wang Qi, vice-general manager of Beijing Capital Land.

The shares are expected to be formally listed on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearings Ltd on Thursday. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd is its international co-ordinator and lead underwriter.

The shares have already been seven times oversubscribed by overseas investors in the past two weeks, company sources said.

Singapore's GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd has subscribed for 158.1 million shares. The shares account for 9.8 per cent of the Beijing company's total holdings.

And Beijing Enterprises Holdings Ltd, a red-chip company in Hong Kong, will also buy 1 per cent of the shares.

Beijing Capital Land is the real estate arm of the Beijing Capital Group, a solely State-owned enterprise involved in finance, utilities and real estate businesses.

The group already has an A-share listing arm on the Chinese mainland, the Beijing Capital Co Ltd.

To facilitate the H-share issue, the group infused the best real estate resources to Beijing Capital Land last year.

It will still hold 60 per cent of shares in the property company after the H-share offering.

Beijing Capital Land now has 27 projects in Beijing, including apartment buildings, villas, and office towers, Wang said.

All of the projects are located in areas like Finance Street, Zhongguancun Science Park and the Asian Games Village.

It will also shoulder some key property projects for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, such as green land and subway construction, company sources say.

All the projects involve a total construction area of 3.4 million square metres, which will generate 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) of sales volume in the next five years, Wang said. He estimated the net return should be more than 20 per cent.

"Our listing in Hong Kong is a new start. We will try our best to develop the projects, enhance marketing and lower costs to ensure the best interest of the share-holders," Wang said yesterday.

The company is expected to enlarge its total assets to 7.2 billion yuan (US$867 million) after the share offering.

It predicted a 240 million yuan (US$28.9 million) after-tax profit for the year, according to Hong Kong accounting standards.

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