China's flagship carrier Air China will raise up to US$1.1 billion from an initial public offering in Hong Kong and London next month, exceeding market expectations.

The state-owned carrier was originally expected to raise US$500 million.

Analysts and fund managers say it is now able to lift its IPO size just as Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific has committed to buying a 9.9 per cent stake in the carrier and because market concerns over rising jet fuel prices have eased.

About 30 per cent of the company will be offered, valuing the carrier at up to US$3.7 billion, bigger than the market capitalisations of Hong Kong-listed rivals China Eastern and China Southern.

Last month the company ruled out a New York listing and added London to Hong Kong as the second market for its planned equity offering - a move that boosted the UK exchange's drive to attract more Chinese companies.

A London listing by Air China - the first by a Chinese company on the main market in four years - heightened fears that the recent tightening in corporate governance rules in the US would hit its capital markets by deterring some companies from holding offerings there.

(CRI.com November 24, 2004)