Beijing Datang Power Generation Co. is considering issuing A shares in China and has held initial meetings with bankers, a company executive said Thursday.

"We have only begun some research work (on an A-share listing)," Vice President Yang Hongming told Dow Jones Newswires.

The company has shortlisted six banks to discuss the idea.

He said the company has no solid plans as yet on the timetable of an A-share listing, its size or the appointment of a bookrunner.

The Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese power producer hasn't applied to Chinese regulators for a listing, he added.

Beijing Datang has seven projects at the planning stage or under construction, which will raise its existing 7,370-megawatt total installed capacity to nearly 12,000 MW by the end of 2006. The projects will cost a total of about 10 billion yuan (US$=CNY8.28).

The company has said it will finance the projects from internal cash reserves, bond issues and bank borrowings, and has never excluded the possibility of an A-share listing. Last month, it issued US$150 million worth of convertible bonds.

Huaneng Power International Inc. listed A shares in China in late 2001 and raised CNY2.78 billion, while Shandong International Power Development Co. has announced an A-share listing plan to raise CNY1.5 billion to CNY2.5 billion this year at the earliest.

Foreign investors can only invest in China's local currency-denominated A share markets through institutions that are qualified foreign institutional investors.

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