Beijing Jingkelong said yesterday that it had applied to China's securities regulatory body for permission to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Business News reports. The supermarket chain, Beijing's second largest, expects to have its IPO within the year, and would become the first state-owned commercial enterprise from Beijing to be listed in Hong Kong. The company currently has 149 outlets and in 2004 had sales of 5.236 billion yuan. It ranks 27th on the list of the country's largest franchises. According to the company, listing in Hong Kong would allow it to speed up its expansion, enabling it to meet pressure from foreign-financed retailers. Shanghai's Lianhua and Beijing's Wu-Mart supermarket chains previously went public in Hong Kong in 2002 and 2003, respectively.Link: http://dycj.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=7635274