Through a listing inSingapore, Hong Kong film outfit Media Asia is going for an initial publicoffering in July in a bid to raise $11.7m (S$20m).

'The fund raised through theIPO will be used to increase our film output as well as to make movies withhefty budgets,' said executive director and production chief John Chong.

This year, he expects MediaAsia to make eight to 10 films, including the $7.7m (HK$60m) car-racing drama Initial D, which is by far the mostexpensive film by the company. It willbe directed by Alan Mak and Andrew Lau of the crime thriller Infernal Affairs trilogy fame and is dueto start filming later this month. Even bigger in budget is a $20.5m (HK$160m)action adventure starring Jackie Chan which is now in development.

As Media Asia will be thefirst film company to get a listing in Singapore, Chong believes the offer willgenerate more interest among investors there - rather than Hong Kong.

Hong Kong-listed eSunHoldings is the majority stakeholder, owning close to 50% of Media Asia. Afterthe IPO, its stake will be diluted to around 37.5% while the management stakeof the three founders (Jerry Liu, Wellington Fung and Chong) will be reduced toless than 20%.

Chong anticipates greatercollaboration with Singapore's film and production outfits such as MediaCorpRaintree Pictures which is a co-producer of InfernalAffairs II.