The Hong Kong offer is expected next month and will be the biggest initial public offering this year, The Standard reported.

The company plans to use the proceeds of the Hong Kong offering to increase production capacity at its existing mines and to make new acquisitions.

Earlier this week, Anglo American reportedly had advanced talks to buy a stake in Shenhua. The Anglo stake was believed to be worth as little as $US100 million, with the diversified major to acquire the shares at the price set for the Shenhua IPO – likely to be next month.

Shenhua Group is China's largest coal company and produces about 60 million tons of coal per annum.