SHANGHAI - China Securities Regulatory Commission plans to punish a listed steel structures maker for illicit information disclosure related to a big overseas contract, securities newspapers reported on Saturday.

The watchdog has sent a notification about its punishment decision to Zhejiang Hangxiao Steel Structure Co. , which said in March it had won a construction and engineering work worth 34.4 billion yuan ($4.46 billion) in Angola, the reports said.

The announcement helped to send Hangxiao shares soaring as much as six folds this year.

The reports, which did not say how Hangxiao would be punished, were carried in all of the three major Chinese securities newspapers, Beijing-based China Securities Journal, Shanghai Securities News and Shenzhen-based Securities Times.

"Hangxiao Steel's information disclosure over the Angola deal is not timely, inaccurate and incomplete. The CSRC is planning to the penalise the company," the Shanghai Securities News said in a front-page report on Saturday.

An Hangxiao official contacted by phone on Saturday said her company "is likely to have received a CSRC notice regarding CSRC's punishment decision". She declined further comments.

The reports also said several unidentified people involved in the case were suspected of commiting crime, and the CSRC had provided relevant evidence and clues to police.

The suspects have also been barred from leaving China, and relevant overseas authorities are also cooperating with the CSRC to investigate the case, the reports said.

Hangxiao, a small company with a net profit of 21 million yuan in 2006, said on March 12 it had signed contracts with a Hong Kong-registered firm, China International Fund Ltd., for the Angola contracts worth 34.4 billion yuan.

The Hong Kong firm secured a deal with Angola's government to build public housing there over five years, Hangxiao has said, adding it would build housing in 12 Angolan cities.

Hangxiao's shares have tumbled since the middle of April amid media reports that the company was under an official investigation over the deal, but the stock still saw a 266 percent gain over the past three months.

A CSRC official said early this month the watchdog had evidence suggesting irregular trading in Hangxiao's shares. The CSRC could not be reached for comments on Saturday.