(Yicai) Sept. 19 -- Midea Group said it aims to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the next 18 months after the board of the Chinese home appliance giant approved the proposal on the 10th anniversary of the firm going public in Shenzhen.

Midea plans to sell up to 10 percent of its total share capital in Hong Kong, the Foshan-based company said yesterday. The proceeds will be used to expand its global business, increase spending on research and development, and complement operating funds, it added, without disclosing further details.

The secondary listing is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Established in 2000, Midea went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sept. 18, 2013. Since then, the firm has acquired Toshiba's home appliance business, Italian central air conditioner maker Clivet, German industrial robots producer Kuka, and Israeli motion control firm Servotronix Motion Control.

Midea’s shares [SHE: 000333] ended little changed today at CNY56.05 (USD7.68) apiece, valuing the company at about CNY394 billion (USD54 billion).

Midea has about 200 units and employs more than 160,000 people globally, with about 30,000 overseas workers in 20 research and development centers and 18 main production bases in more than 10 countries and regions. It does business in 22 currencies and provides services and products to 400 million users every year.

In the first half of this year, the company’s net profit jumped 14 percent to CNY18.2 billion (USD2.5 billion) from a year ago, while revenue rose 7.7 percent to CNY197.8 billion (USD27.1 billion), per its latest trading report. Forty-one percent of its income came from overseas, with net operating cash flow up 39 percent to over CNY29.8 billion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev