BEIJING: The website of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper has announced it plans to raise up to 1.55 billion yuan ($247 million) in a stock market listing, almost triple its previous target.
The People's Daily Online formally announced plans to be the first Chinese news portal to place shares on the Shanghai stock exchange in January, as part of Beijing's ambition to increase state media's clout in a tough Internet market.
At the time, the firm which operates the website for the People's Daily newspaper said it would raise up to 527 million yuan and would issue 69.1 million shares.
However, it did not set a price range for each share until its statement on Tuesday, when it said it had valued them at between 20 and 22.5 yuan, which could make the initial public offering as big as 1.55 billion yuan.
Liao Hong, head of www.people.com.cn, was quoted in Chinese media as saying the website would use proceeds for "expansion into wireless value-added service, technology platform upgrades and the strengthening of its editorial team."
China is pushing state media giants to list on the stock market in a bid to make them operate on more commercial terms amid growing competition from new Internet companies, which also have news operations.
People's Daily Online is on track to be the first among a slew of government-backed news websites including those belonging to the official Xinhua news agency and state broadcaster CCTV to go public.
According to state media reports, the company earned a net profit of 139 million yuan last year and took in 497 million yuan in revenues.
It said in January that it had already reached agreements with domestic telecoms heavyweights such as China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom to buy its shares.
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