China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp (Sinopharm) plans to float its drug-making and distribution businesses, raising about 7 billion yuan ($1.03 billion) in an initial public offering of H-shares in Hong Kong in October, the Wen Wei Po newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Set up in 2003, the listing unit Sinopharm Holdings is 51 percent owned by China National Pharmaceutical Group and 49 percent by Hong Kong pharmaceutical and steel products distributor Fosun International, the newspaper reported, citing Zhu Jinjin, a spokesman for the Chinese pharmaceutical group.

It gave no further listing details.

The spokesman said Song Zhiping, chairman of China's top cement maker China National Building Materials, had also become chairman of China National Pharmaceutical Group in June.

China National Pharmaceutical Group, which controls Shenzhen Accord Pharmaceutical and China National Medicines, had originally planned to spinoff its medicine making business in Hong Kong as early as the fourth quarter of 2008, raising about $750 million.

Activity in the Hong Kong IPO market has picked up in recent months as the stock market rallied, with listing hopefuls reviving plans that had been put on hold last year amid the financial crisis.

(US$1=HK$7.75=6.832 yuan)

(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Chris Lewis)

China