Aug 21, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Guangzhou Investment plans to raise at least $200 million from the sale of shares in its paper business in an initial public offering next year in Hong Kong, XFN-ASIA reported citing the South China Morning Post. It has hired BOC International and BNP Paribas to arrange the sale, the Hong Kong newspaper reported. Guangzhou Investment said in its annual earnings report in April that it was studying the spin-off of its newsprint operation to focus on property and infrastructure. Guangzhou Investment fell 2.04% on August 20 to close at HKD 1.44 ($0.19). With the company's paper assets valued at HKD 1.6 billion ($205.8 million), the size of the offer would imply a valuation of about 12 times next year's earnings, the report said. That would be slightly lower than the 13.6 times cardboard-maker Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) was valued at when it raised HKD 3.4 billion ($437.3 million) in a share sale in March.