For a 21.35 percent stake in the utility Energias de Portugal, bidders have made binding offers valued in the range of 2.3 billion to 2.7 billion euros ($3.1 billion to $3.6 billion) a premium of 22.5 to 42.9 percent, a Portuguese newspaper said.

Jornal de Negocios, which did not name its sources, said on Monday that China Three Gorges Corp had placed the highest bid for the Portuguese state's stake and that China Development Bank, which is financing the offer, is ready to provide loans worth 7.5 billion euros to debt-laden Portugal.

At current prices, a 21.35 percent stake in the country's biggest company is worth about 1.9 billion euros.

Prices of Baoshan rise

Baoshan Iron Steel Co, China's biggest publicly traded steelmaker, has increased cold-rolled coil prices for the first time in three months because of higher costs.

January-delivery prices were raised by 100 yuan ($16) a metric ton, Shanghai-based Baoshan said in a statement on its trade website on Monday, without giving details. It's the first increase since October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company kept the price of January hot-rolled coil unchanged.

New wave of insurers due

A new wave of foreign insurers will invest in China in the coming decade, although their market share remains at a low level at present, according to research from the China Center for Insurance and Social Security Research (CCISSR) at Peking University.

The country's low insurance density and penetration, coupled with the quickening pace of urbanization, is the biggest attraction for foreign insurers, according CCISSR research on the opening-up of the nation's insurance industry.

Loan deal for energy company

China Everbright International Ltd, a Hong Kong-based renewable energy developer, plans to sign a $100 million loan with seven to eight banks by the end of the year, a person familiar with the matter said.

The $100 million loan is being arranged and underwritten by Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, the person said, asking not to be identified because the deal's details are private.

The loan is the commercial bank portion of $200 million worth of a special type of financing that is to come from the Asian Development Bank, the person said.

The Asian Development Bank agreed to provide the financing two years ago.

Traditional med forum closes

The Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture Exposition and Forum closed on Monday in Beijing after attracting a series of enterprises and research institutes from China and South Korea, Japan and other foreign countries.

The event provided a forum for discussing the regulation and standardization of Chinese traditional medicine, the protection of the raw materials used in the medicine and the possibility of combining it with Western therapies.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 12/13/2011 page13)