Giant Interactive Group Inc, developer of China's most popular online game last year, and a shareholder may raise US$801 million in the largest US initial public offering by a Chinese company since at least 1999.

The Shanghai-based company and the daughter of its chief executive officer will sell almost 57.2 million American depositary receipts, equivalent to a 22-percent stake, at US$12 to US$14 each, according to a document posted yesterday on the Website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Giant Interactive is raising funds to finance capital expenditure and potential acquisitions. Sales of online games in China may more than triple to US$3 billion in 2011, from last year's US$815 million, according to a forecast by International Data Corp, a market research firm.

Chinese companies have raised US$3.3 billion in US IPOs so far this year, more than the last two years combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Nasdaq-quoted ADRs of Perfect World Co, a Beijing-based online game developer, have nearly doubled since a US$217 million IPO in July.

Three-year-old Giant Interactive, formerly known as Shanghai Zhengtu Network Technology Co, began offering its first product, ZT Online, on a commercial basis in January 2006. An October 12 filing estimated that the company's first-time public share sale will raise as much as US$100 million.

(Shanghai Daily October 19, 2007)