Proceeds from the the listing of the gaming arm of the company, "which accounts for more than 95 per cent of Shanghai-based Shanda's income," will be used to fund expansion, according to Shanda's official filing.

At present, Shanda operates 18 MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) and 11 casual games, including popular title Aion. The gaming unit earned a net profit of RMB671m in the first half of 2009, up from RMB383m a year ago. The move follows an IPO by its rival Sohu, which spun off its Changyou.com gaming arm raising USD138m in April.