METALLURGICAL Corp of China Ltd plans to raise as much as 18.97 billion yuan in its initial public offering in Shanghai, the second biggest IPO on the Chinese mainland this year.

The company will sell as much as 3.5 billion yuan-denominated A shares at between 5 yuan and 5.42 yuan, it said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange late yesterday.

A total of 2.1 billion shares will be subscribed in an online tranche for retail and institutional investors tomorrow and 1.4 billion shares were issued offline for institutional investors from today.

"The price at the trading debut should range between 6.1 yuan and 7.4 yuan, equivalent to 24.4 and 29.6 times earnings per share," said Guotai Junan Securities Co.

MCC will also sell as much as 2.87 billion shares in Hong Kong to raise HK$19.6 billion, the biggest IPO in 18 months in Hong Kong, at between HK$6.16 and HK$6.81 apiece.

The state-owned firm will use the proceeds from the dual listing to fund international projects, repay bank loans and acquire overseas mining resources.