Asia's largest construction group, China Railway Construction Company Ltd, will be listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges separately on December 3 and 7.

The construction contractor plans to issue no more than 4.675 billion A shares and no more than 3.326 billion H shares.

According to BOC International (China) Limited, underwriter for China Railway's IPO, their reasonable price range will be 6.26 to 7.29 yuan (0.84 to 0.98 US dollars).

At a promotion yesterday in Shanghai, the company said, apart from traffic infrastructure construction, it would also expand its business portfolio to include some high-growth areas like real estate development and mineral resources exploration.

According to Shi Dahua, Board Chair of the firm, property development got included in the group's core businesses last year.

"But it is still too late," Shi said, "Our subordinate companies have been engaged in property development in the past few years, but only this year have we set up a real estate company to build a uniform brand to get a bigger market share."

At the same time the group also wants to tap into the scarcity of mineral resources issue.

However, industry insiders said lack of professional know-how would be a problem facing the company.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese (http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20071115/020000060374.shtml).

(China.org.cn November 15, 2007)