CHINA’S securities regulator has accepted China Nuclear Engineering Corp.’s application to raise 1.8 billion yuan (US$289 million) in an initial public offering ahead of a listing in Shanghai.

    China Nuclear Engineering wants to sell up to 525 million yuan-denominated A shares, the company said in a draft plan.

    The plan is the same as one approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2012, a necessary step for companies whose operations may affect the environment.

    The proceeds will buy construction materials and equipment, pay for social housing and research and development and working capital, according to the draft.

    China Nuclear Engineering Group Co. holds a 79.2 percent stake in the company.

    China National Nuclear Power Co. said in May it plans to raise up to 16.25 billion yuan in a Shanghai listing in the industry’s first initial public offering, as part of the world’s biggest expansion of civilian nuclear power capacity.

    China General Nuclear Power Corp. will also seek to raise about US$2 billion in a Hong Kong listing in the third quarter, sources with direct knowledge of the deal said in March.

    The planned share sales by China’s nuclear firms would be part of the government’s drive toward cleaner energy, under which it aims for installed nuclear power capacity of 58 gigawatts by 2020 from 14.6 gigawatts in 2013, rising to 200 gigawatts by 2030, a goal analysts labeled ambitious.

    Expansion was suspended after the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, but plant construction is widely expected to resume in coming months.

    China, the world’s largest power producer, has emerged as the biggest market for nuclear plants, approving four to eight projects a year for the rest of the decade, many using U.S. or French technology, according to some estimates. (SD-Agencies)