Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc are among at least seven banks competing in Beijing to manage a US$2 billion first-time share sale for Shenhua Group Corp, China's biggest coal miner, bankers said.

　　Shenhua, which is reviving plans it scrapped two years ago, may sell stocks in Hong Kong and New York as soon as this year, said the bankers involved in the pitching, who asked not to be identified. ABN Amro Holding NV, Merrill Lynch & Co, Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corp also made presentations to management, the bankers said.

　　China plans to sell more than US$15 billion of government-owned stocks in overseas share sales this year, generating about US$450 million in investment-banking fees. The state-owned companies will use funds to help cover pension costs and fend off increased overseas competition.

　　"The government is encouraging these enterprises to raise funds from shareholders instead of using state money," said Peter Chau, a fund manager at TAL CEF Global Asset Management Ltd in Hong Kong. "That'll help boost the social security funds."

　　Power demand in China this year is forecast to rise 11 percent to a record 2.09 trillion kilowatt-hours, State Grid Corp, China's biggest electricity distributor, said in a report in December. More blackouts are expected this year in China and capacity isn't expected to catch up with demand until 2006, State Grid said.

　　Beijing-based Shenhua is the seventh Chinese firm that has hired or is soliciting bankers to sell at least US$1 billion of stocks to global investors this year.

　　Wall Street firms are competing for fees in China to win future business from a government that owned assets valued at 11.83 trillion yuan (US$1.42 trillion) at the end of 2002. Chinese companies accounted for two-thirds of the US$11.3 billion of overseas IPOs sold by companies in Asia outside Japan and Australia last year, according to Bloomberg data.

　　Officials at the seven investment banks declined to comment.

　　China Shipping Container Lines Co, owned by China's biggest oil shipper, earlier hired BNP Paribas Peregrine Capital to arrange a US$2 billion share sale. China Minsheng Banking Corp, China Power International Holding Ltd and China Construction Bank, the nation's third-biggest lender, also aim to sell stocks this year.

　　Goldman, Morgan Stanley, HSBC Holdings Plc and BOC International (Holdings) Ltd will arrange a US$2 billion stock offer by Ping An Insurance Co, China's second-biggest life insurer as soon as May. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China's first chipmaker to sell shares publicly, on Friday raised HK$14 billion (US$1.8 billion), the maximum it sought in its IPO, a banker involved in the transaction said.

　　(Bloomberg News)