The operator of China’s high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai began its initial public offering (IPO), which will for the first time allow investors to buy shares in what is the world’s largest such network.
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Co (京滬高鐵), a unit of state-owned China Railway Corp (中國國家鐵路集團), plans to sell as many as 6.3 billion new shares, or 12.8 percent of its enlarged capital, through the listing in Shanghai, according to its prospectus released on Wednesday.
Book building for the IPO is to begin on Jan. 6, it said.
The company did not say how much it aimed to raise through the sale.
The listing adds to signs that China is pushing to further open industries dominated by state-owned companies.
Beijing on Sunday outlined plans to allow private-sector businesses to enter industries including energy, telecoms and rail, and on Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) pledged to give foreign investors greater access to service sectors, including finance and healthcare.
Those steps have come as a campaign to rein in China’s shadow banking industry has sapped financing for many non-state companies and the trade dispute with the US has led some multinationals to reassess their investments.
With economic growth at the slowest since the early 1990s, Beijing has sought to reassure these contingents and spur more capital spending.
Proceeds from Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway’s IPO is to be used to help finance the acquisition of a 65.1 percent stake in a domestic railway operator for 50 billion yuan (US$7.1 billion), according to the prospectus.
The IPO was approved in a record 23 days by the country’s securities regulator.
China’s high-speed railway network, at 35,000km, is by far the world’s largest.
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway reported more than a 30 percent net margin for last year, with annual profit of 7.9 billion yuan, 9 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan for the past three years, its prospectus showed.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last