CRRC Corp., China’s only maker of high speed locomotives, plans to raise as much as 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) in a private share sale in Shanghai to repay debt and help finance its daily operations.

    The firm’s board has approved the sale of as many as 1.39 billion A shares at 8.66 yuan apiece, CRRC said Friday.

    That’s a 4.8 percent discount to the last close. Controlling stakeholder CRRC Group plans to buy about 692 million shares in the placement, which will probably be completed within six months after receiving regulatory approval.

    The government combined former trainmakers CSR Corp. and China CNR Corp. last year to form CRRC, in a bid to better compete with Germany’s Siemens AG and France’s Alstom SA.

    Home to the world’s biggest high speed rail network, China has identified the sector as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint for economic development.

    Premier Li Keqiang is leading the nation’s overseas push by train equipment makers as part of the government’s broader strategy to turn China into an advanced industrial nation. They have targeted emerging markets in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia for rail-related orders, while also bidding for high-profile contracts in the developed world.

    CRRC vice president Yu Weiping said in April that the company’s interested in investing in more U.S. cities after it won a US$1.3 billion rail-car contract for Chicago’s urban rail system the previous month.

    CRRC, which has 170,000 employees, is also interested in Europe and other markets, and is still committed to double its overseas sales to as much as US$15 billion by 2020, Yu said.

    The company’s shares last traded in Shanghai at 9.10 yuan May 13 before being suspended. The stock has lost 29 percent this year. (SD-Agencies)