The promotion will last for up to 10 days and pricing is expected during that time, said Callis Lau from IPR Asia Ltd, the public relations agency responsible for Meilan's IPO.

Lau said the company passed a listing hearing at the stock exchange last Thursday but refused to divulge more details.

International Financial News reported earlier this week that Meilan is likely to list on November 14.

The company aims to raise US$100 million from the IPO, according to a source from Meilan in the article.

It plans to issue a total of 201.7 million H-shares, including an IPO of 2.017 million shares in Hong Kong, 9.183 million shares for international investors and 8.97 million shares for its strategic investors, Copenhagen Airports A/S, the report said.

The company issued an announcement on its proposed IPO and strategic investment by Copenhagen Airports last Thursday.

According to the announcement, Copenhagen Airports signed an agreement with the company to subscribe a stake of up to 20 per cent of the entire issued share capital for a maximum of HK$515 million (US$66.03 million) upon the completion of the IPO.

Together with the strategic investment, the company has signed a 10-year conditional contract with Copenhagen Airport Development International A/S (CADI), a wholly owned subsidiary of the strategic investor, under which CADI will provide advisory services in relation to capacity utilization and expansion, airport operations and the development of commercial activities.

Meilan will be the second mainland airport listed in Hong Kong, after Beijing Capital International Airport's 2000 listing.

The IPO will partly be used to expand Meilan.

About 400 million yuan (US$48.43 million) will be poured into Meilan's expansion project within the coming year, Chen Wenli, executive officer of Meilan, said earlier this year.

He said the project will push the airport's annual handling capacity to 10 million passengers from 6 million people at the moment.

Chen said the goal of the airport is to become an internationally renowned aviation enterprise within the next nine years.

(China Daily October 24, 2002)