BrokerDealer.com blog extends thanks to the Wall Street Journal’s Shen Hong for providing coverage regarding the Xinhua News Agency initial public offering. See below link for full story. in Wall Street Journal today’s article.

SHANGHAI—China’s official news service is on track for an initial public offering of its digital arm, as Beijing seeks to transform its staid propaganda organs into modernized entities.

If the plan proceeds, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency would become the second of the Communist Party’s state-run media outlets to sell stock to the public, following the IPO two years ago of People.cn Co. 603000.SH -3.31%, the website of the authorities’ flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily.

In recent years, Beijing has encouraged its state-run media to tap the capital markets for funds and to use modern tools to boost the influence of the propaganda machines that it has used for decades to deliver its message to the Chinese people. Analysts say the government also hopes its propaganda arms can help it to promote “soft power”—cultural heft around the world through media such as movies and television shows—as well as to develop a thriving domestic media industry.

Xinhuanet Co., which operates the 83-year-old news agency’s main website Xinhuanet.com, released the preliminary IPO prospectus for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the Chinese securities regulator’s website late Friday. Continue reading →