A company to administer the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, currently under construction, is expected to be set up at the end of the year, the Oriental Morning Post reported (in Chinese). The firm, to be called Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Corporation, will have registered capital of US$15 billion and will undertake fund raising for the project. The Ministry of Railways is expected to buy a stake of about 35% in the new investment group for US$5 billion. Five institutional investors – Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the National Council for Social Security Fund and a foreign private equity fund – will invest US$1.3 billion each for a total stake of about 45%. Local governments will contribute the remaining 20%. The railway, whose budget is US$29 billion, is the country's second-largest national project after the Three Gorges hydropower projects.
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