Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-28
By: CNA
A financial reform program aimed at saving Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) from
A train at the Taiwan High Speed Rail Taipei Station, May 2010. (File photo/Liu Tsung-lung)
potential bankruptcy got its start Monday, when the system’s BOT (build, operate, transfer) era came to an end.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications signed two agreements with THSRC on Monday to terminate the original BOT contract that the debt-ridden private company was working under to build and operate Taiwan’s only high-speed rail line.
The deal signaled a new for Taiwan’s high-speed rail line connecting Taipei and Kaohsiung, in which the government will become THSRC’s majority shareholder but the company will be privately managed, THSRC chair Victor Liu said.
Under the new plan, government-controlled institutions will increase their stake in the company from 22.1% to 63.9%, while the holdings of large private shareholders will fall from 37.4% to 17.4%. [FULL STORY]
