The Kowloon Canton Railway Corp - which was yesterday given the same credit rating as the Hong Kong Government by Standard & Poor's - said it would borrow up to $30 billion over the next six years to finance the construction of the West Rail project.
Finance director Samuel Lai said the government-owned corporation had recently revised its estimate of the project's cost to $60 billion, from the previous $56 billion.
The revision reflected the inclusion of the land premium to be paid to the Government from the acquisition of nearby land to facilitate construction.
Possible income from property development along the railway will also be used to pay for the construction.
He said the corporation planned to pay up to half the construction cost by debt financing, with the first fund-raising exercise tentatively scheduled for the second half of next year.
S&P yesterday assigned an A+ long-term foreign currency corporate rating and an AA- local-currency rating to the corporation, with a stable ratings outlook.
