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HK may sell stake in Disney park to curb deficit-paper
Reuters, 06.02.03, 10:35 PM ET
HONG KONG, June 3 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government is considering selling its stake in the upcoming Disneyland theme park to help pay off its massive budget deficit, the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Other assets which could be sold include the Ocean Park theme park and government investments in transportation, properties, tourist related projects and housing loans for civil servants, the newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying.
The government will mandate investment banks soon to study its asset sale plans, it said.
The US$1.8 billion Walt Disney Company (nyse: DIS - news - people) park in Hong Kong is expected to be completed in 2005. The government, which is counting on the project to infect some life into the eocnomy, will own 57 percent of the company which will build and operate the attraction.
A government spokesman declined to comment on details of such plans other than to reiterate that the administration is planning to sell or privatise various assets.
In May, the government sold HK$4.8 billion (US$615 million) worth of civil service housing loans to the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation as the start of its asset sale project, which aims to raise HK$21 billion this fiscal year.
According to the latest government estimate, the Airport Authority alone -- seen as one of the government's prime assets -- is worth about HK$36-38 billion.
Financial Secretary Antony Leung said last month that Hong Kong's budget deficit would rise this year as a result of government relief measures to help industries worst-affected by the outbreak of the deadly SARS virus.
The government had originally forecast the budget deficit would hit HK$68 billion for the 2003/04 fiscal year.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
Reuters, 06.02.03, 10:35 PM ET
HONG KONG, June 3 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government is considering selling its stake in the upcoming Disneyland theme park to help pay off its massive budget deficit, the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Other assets which could be sold include the Ocean Park theme park and government investments in transportation, properties, tourist related projects and housing loans for civil servants, the newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying.
The government will mandate investment banks soon to study its asset sale plans, it said.
The US$1.8 billion Walt Disney Company (nyse: DIS - news - people) park in Hong Kong is expected to be completed in 2005. The government, which is counting on the project to infect some life into the eocnomy, will own 57 percent of the company which will build and operate the attraction.
A government spokesman declined to comment on details of such plans other than to reiterate that the administration is planning to sell or privatise various assets.
In May, the government sold HK$4.8 billion (US$615 million) worth of civil service housing loans to the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation as the start of its asset sale project, which aims to raise HK$21 billion this fiscal year.
According to the latest government estimate, the Airport Authority alone -- seen as one of the government's prime assets -- is worth about HK$36-38 billion.
Financial Secretary Antony Leung said last month that Hong Kong's budget deficit would rise this year as a result of government relief measures to help industries worst-affected by the outbreak of the deadly SARS virus.
The government had originally forecast the budget deficit would hit HK$68 billion for the 2003/04 fiscal year.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
