State-owned railway project attracts investors

The State-owned railway infrastructure project in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, has attracted numerous private investors, and the fundraising process for the first phase has been completed two months ahead of schedule.

The first installment of 1.5 billion yuan ($238.89 million) worth of S1 line shares was made available for investors through April, but it was sold out in late February.

The formal sale of 50 percent of the shares in the S1 railway line — a planned 52.22-km route — was launched in December 2012 with a starting price of 10,000 yuan. The guaranteed annual after-tax return will be 6 percent.

The amount raised in the first two days was over 100 million yuan.

The total cost of the S1 line has been expanded from 17.6 billion yuan to 43.2 billion yuan, half of which will come from individual investors and private companies.

Wenzhou Xingfu Rail-Transit Shares Holding Co was launched on December 2012 to operate the project, which is valued at 8.8 billion yuan, and attract investors.