The planned sale follows the company's successful spin-off earlier this year of its wine unit, Dynasty Fine Wines Group.

The red chip conglomerate has picked CLSA to arrange the share sale, and it may add one more investment bank to handle the deal, one source said.

The sale could come ``by the end of this year or early next year,'' the source added, though the company has yet to determine precisely which assets will be included in the sale.

At a minimum, the new unit will incorporate the assets of two wholly-owned Tianjin Development subsidiaries - Tianjin Port Container Terminal Co, which provides container terminal services, and Tianjin Harbour Second Stevedoring Co - the sources said. Other assets that might be added to include dump sites located near its terminals and other berths owned by the municipal government. ``It'll be clearer next month,'' one said.

Though the company hasn't settled on just how much it hopes to raise from the sale, sources said it will at least be as large as the Dynasty offering, which pulled in HK$776 million in January and is expected to contribute an exceptional gain of about HK$100 million to Tianjin Development's earnings this year.

Proceeds from the port sale are expected to be used by the Tianjin Port Authority to pay for new berths and other facilities, sources said.

Tianjin was once China's second-largest port after Shanghai, but has been eclipsed since 1997 by Shenzhen, Qingdao and Ningbo and now ranks fifth, with total throughput of 200 million tons last year, including 3.81 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers. Total throughput climbed 22 percent to 119 million tons in the first six months of this year, with container volume jumping 24.3 percent to 2.27 million TEUs.

Tianjin Development's port unit, Tianjin Port Container Terminal, accounted for only 47.4 percent of the port's container volume, or 1.81 million TEUs, last year. However, the municipal port authority has promised to allocate at least half of the port's container volume to the unit in the future.

The port business posted sales of HK$775 million and contributed HK$77 million net profit to Tianjin Development last year.

``The group will continue to spin off those mature and well-developed businesses in order to realize the implicit value of such businesses,'' Wang Guanghao, chairman of Tianjin Development said in April. The company hasn't always delivered on promised spin-offs, however. The planned sale of shares in its road unit, first unveiled in late 2002, has yet to take place.

The parent company has wide-ranging interests, spanning everything from ports, wines, roads and utilities, to elevators, escalators, gas fuel distribution and property development. The port operations accounted for about 37 percent of total turnover last year.

Boosted by an exceptional gain from an asset sale, Tianjin Development's net profits last year grew 165 percent to HK$564 million, from HK$213 million in 2003.

carol.chan1@singtaonewscorp.com

kc.wong@singtaonewscorp.com