Bus firm sees listing as express route to better return

Stand in a queue on a Beijing street at rush hour and watch the ageing red and white bus come to a halt. The people push past each other to clamber on board, while the sour-faced conductress screams orders at them. The door shuts and the bus grinds back into motion.

Ask Beijing people what they think of the buses they use every day and they answer: dirty, over-crowded, ill-mannered and cheap.

Cheap it certainly is. At 15 yuan (about HK$13.98) for a monthly ticket for unlimited travel within the city and 25 yuan to include the suburbs, it is one of the cheapest forms of public transport in the world.

A typical socialist public service, in other words. So imagine the public's amazement when last week the bus company said it was seeking a domestic stock-market listing, with approval given by the city government and expected from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Success would make it only the second listed bus company in the country, after Shanghai, but what is being listed is just a small part of the parent, Beijing Public Transport, a socialist behemoth with 80,000 employees that relies on a state subsidy - 980 million yuan in 1996 and about 800 million last year.

The company has injected four assets into the Beijing Bus Stock Co that was founded on June 11 - its best routes, many operated by air-conditioned buses, a fleet of minibuses, tourist buses and the company that sells advertising on buses and at bus stations.