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Enoch Yiu

Top Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) officials are laying the trackwork for a roadshow of Chinese cities that will focus on encouraging railway companies to list here.

HKEx chief executive Paul Chow Man-yiu  said yesterday that he would tour the mainland soon with exchange chairman Charles Lee Yeh-kwong  to urge more firms to consider Hong Kong listings.

An exchange source said the mainland had not allowed foreign investors to directly invest in railways, but listing in Hong Kong would allow railway companies to raise capital without the government having to relinquish control of their management.

Analysts said railways keen on a Hong Kong listing could include  links between major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and  the high-speed magnetic levitation  train link between Shanghai airport and the city's financial centre.

'In China, there are almost 1,000 km of new track added to the existing 70,000 km national network each year,' the exchange source said.

'Many railway companies want  to add more high-speed and modern trains and tracks.

'They would all need money and Hong Kong's stock market will have a role to play in China's ongoing railway reform.'

China's building infrastructure  is often likened to the continental expansion of the United States in the 19th century, which  opened up the country's western regions through the  development of vast rail networks.

Early railway projects in the mainland were largely built by colonial powers.

However, under the communist government, the country's network has been developed into one of the world's largest, with about 65,000 km of track.

One of the great financial busts of 19th-century capitalism occurred in the 1830s, after a vast expansion of rail networks in Britain and the US - funded by private shareholders - ended with original investors being wiped out.

At present, Guangshen Railway, which operates the through-train service between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, is the only mainland railway company to list here.



HKEx officials lay trackwork for  a rail roadshow to the mainland