Tie-up queries left at the station while phase two work starts on Shenzhen line
No firm date has been set for the long-awaited merger of MTR Corp and Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCRC) despite assurances from the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang that negotiators had agreed on several fundamental issues.
Mr Ma declined to comment on when the contentious merger might be finalised. He was attending the ground-breaking ceremony at the work site on the phase two trial section of the Shang Mei Lin Station - one of the 10 stations linked to the Shenzhen Metro Line 4 project.
Talk of a merger between KCRC and MTR to make the territory's transport system more efficient has been a contentious issue since 2002.
MTR, which was listed in 2000 with the government retaining a majority stake, backed a merger while government-owned KCRC has consistently opposed the plan.
Asked if the MTR and KCRC were still divergent over the valuation of their assets, MTR chief executive Chow Chung-kong said there was more at stake in the negotiations than simple valuations.
'It's not simply a matter of how high or low the valuations are, what we are dealing with are the negotiations over the whole financial arrangements. Certainly, valuations are one of our concerns and we are still in talks with the government.'