China Three Gorges Renewables is moving ahead with what could be mainland China's largest initial public offering of the year.
The company announced Monday that it has now begun to accept applications for its share sale.
The state-owned company, a unit of China Three Gorges, is the world's largest hydroelectric power producer. The company said it is hoping to raise up to $3.52 billion through its share sale in Shanghai. Three Gorges has yet to announce an official listing date.
The listing is expected to be one of the largest IPOs in the mainland, second only to Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway's $4.4 billion share sale in January last year. China Telecom previously announced plans to have a secondary listing in Shanghai; a listing that could potentially be much larger in size.
The move to list its shares comes as other state-owned energy groups have announced plans to commit to President Xi Jinping's mission to make the country carbon neutral by 2060.
China Three Gorges has set the preliminary pricing for its IPO at 2.65 yuan per share. The company plans to issue a maximum of 8.57 billion shares. The owner of the world's largest hydroelectric power plant is expected to make around $3.48 billion after offering costs are deducted.
China Three Gorges said it plans to use the proceeds of the share sale to build new offshore wind farms to complement its hydroelectric infrastructure.
According to its offering prospectus, China Three Gorges plans to build seven offshore wind power projects that will span the Yellow seas in the north and the South China Sea in the south. This will also include a project in the Shandong Province coast that will become China's first wind plant and aquafarm.
As of September 2020, China Three Gorges generates about 11,890 megawatts of domestic power generating capacity. Out of its total capacity, about 58% are generated by wind, 40% solar, and 2% hydro.
China Three Gorges Renewables was established as a fully state-owned water conservancy company in 1985. It was later spun off as a renewable energy company under the China Three Gorges Corp. Shanghai-listed China Yangtze Power, also under China Three Gorges Corp., is the actual company that runs the Three Gorges Dam.
