The Beijing-based company's plan to sell as many as one billion A shares was approved by shareholders last year but the resolutions will expire in June. It said the application for the sale to China Securities Regulatory Commission is still under review but did not provide further explanation.

Datang chairman Zhai Ruoyu said in March he expected the company to raise 3.2-4 billion yuan by selling 500 million A shares.

He also said the sale could be completed in the second half.

Despite the possible delay, Datang's shares closed up 0.82 percent to close at HK$6.15 Thursday. The stock has gained 5.13 percent so far this year.

The company has scaled down the amount it plans to invest on power generation projects from the share sale proceeds.

It suggested a total of 3.1 billion yuan be spent on coal-fired projects, compared to 4.4 billion yuan it proposed a year earlier. The investment of 854 million yuan to complete the Pengshui hydropower project remains unchanged.

``During the past year, the company already put money into some projects so there's a reduction in the investment amount,'' Daiwa Institute of Research head of China research Alex Fan said.

He projected a 20 percent dilution in earnings per share if the company issues one billion A shares.

Datang aims to almost double its total capacity to 20,015 megawatts in 2006 to meet the expected 12 percent growth in power demand in the mainland this year and 11 percent next year.

Even with strong demand, the power producer is battling rising coal prices, which crimped earnings of China's electricity suppliers last year. Datang's unit fuel costs surged 14.5 percent in 2004.

Cosco International Holdings' power plants in Henan province fell into red in the first quarter from a year ago amid 40 percent jump in coal prices, the company's managing director Liu Hanbo said Thursday.

gladys.tang@singtaonewscorp.com