China’s main developer of nuclear power plants says it plans to raise money with an initial public offering, suggesting an industry building boom is resuming after being suspended following Japan’s nuclear disaster last year.
The IPO will help to pay for a 173.5 billion yuan ($27 billion) program to build or expand five nuclear power plants, China National Nuclear Power Corp. said in a statement on the Environment Ministry website.
China has ambitious plans to have more than 100 reactors operating by 2020 to help curb surging demand for coal and imported oil and gas. But development was suspended after Japan’s March 2011 tsunami crippled the Fukushima power plant, causing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
IPO proceeds will help pay for work on nuclear power plants in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces in the southeast, Jiangsu province north of Shanghai and on the southern island of Hainan