July 16 (Bloomberg) -- China Distance Education Holdings Ltd., the nation's largest provider of online professional education services, may raise as much as $96 million in a New York initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing.

　　The Beijing-based company may offer 8.75 million American depositary receipts, equivalent to 35 million shares, at $9 to $11 each, the July 15 filing said. The sale may be expanded by another 1.3 million ADRs to meet excess demand.

　　The offering is only the third of its kind by a Chinese company this year, with two previous sales fetching a total of $80 million, after the worst U.S. housing crisis since the Great Depression reduced demand for assets including new stocks. By contrast, 28 Chinese companies and their owners raised a total of $6.7 billion in U.S. initial share sales last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

　　One of the two previous offerings this year was by a so- called blank-check company. Such companies are usually formed to merge or buy another firm within a period of about two years.

　　China Distance Education offers online education and test preparation courses in areas such as accounting, law, health care, construction engineering and information technology, the filing said. iResearch Consulting Group and Beijing-based CCID Consulting ranked the company the largest provider of online professional education in the country by course enrollments last year, it added.

　　China's online education market may more than double to 32.8 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) by 2010, from 14.5 billion yuan in 2006, according to a forecast by Shanghai-based iResearch, quoted in China Distance Education's filing. Rising demand for professional education and the Internet's growing popularity are expected to boost the market.

　　Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are managing the IPO.

　　中文摘要：

　　正保遠程教育將在紐約進行高達9600萬美元的首次公開募股。該公司將以每份9到11美元的價格提供875萬美國存托憑證，價值3500萬股份。根據去年的課程注冊總人數，正保教育被認為是中國在線職業教育最大的提供商。

　　花旗和美林將是此次IPO的承銷商。