XINHUANET Co., a unit of China’s official Xinhua News Agency, is seeking to raise US$240 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

    The firm is aiming to raise about 1.5 billion yuan (US$240 million) by selling 51.9 million shares to expand in cloud computing and the mobile Internet, according to a preliminary prospectus yesterday.

    A Xinhuanet listing would follow the 2012 debut of People.cn Co., the online site for the People’s Daily. Shanghai-listed People.cn raised 1.4 billion yuan in its IPO.

    Domestic media firms are selling shares to help reduce their financial burden on the government while investing to adapt to rising consumption of news on mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers.

    Proceeds from the planned Xinhuanet sale, which was first announced in January 2013, will be used to fund five projects with a combined investment of 1.5 billion yuan, according to the prospectus.

    The largest project, accounting for 644.7 million yuan worth of the proceeds, will establish a cloud platform for multimedia applications and services, according to the prospectus.

    The second-largest project, accounting for 531.6 million yuan, is to develop a system for mobile Internet integration, processing and distribution. Other projects include a big data analysis system, a new media technology research and development center and an online education project, Xinhuanet said in the prospectus. (SD-Agencies)