Calcol Inc., which sells pop in China, announced Friday that it has sold $3 million in preferred and common stock.

Part of the proceeds was used to complete the buyout of a joint-venture partner's stake in Sanhe Meile Soft Drinks Co. of Beijing.

Most of the stock was preferred shares sold to British institutional investors, said Norman Kaplan, who lives in Shaker Heights and is chairman and president of Calcol, which is based in Shaker Heights and Beijing.

The joint-venture partner, China National Food Industry Group Corp., had 20 percent of Sanhe Meile.

Money from the stock sale also will go toward working capital, an upgrade to computerized accounting systems and personnel and insurance needs, the company said.

Calcol also said it will use proceeds to put soft drinks in about 3,000 additional retail stores in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province.

The company, which has both a concentrate and bottling plant in Beijing, sells in about 500 stores in China, Kaplan said.

Calcol, whose shares are closely held and thinly traded, is listed publicly on the Pink Sheets, an over-the-counter market that requires limited financial reporting, Kaplan said. Calcol has about 1,000 shareholders, but only about 200 of those are "of record" - those who hold the stocks in their own name, as opposed to those whose brokers are the registered owners.

The stock last traded at 24 cents per share. The company has about 98 million common shares outstanding.

Kaplan said an additional 3.7 million preferred shares would turn into 23.5 million more common shares if converted.

He said that once Calcol's accounting systems adhere to the generally accepted accounting principles used in the United States, the company intends to seek a listing first on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board and then, if qualified, on the Nasdaq exchange. Both require greater financial reporting than Pink Sheets.

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