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Taiwan OKs airline's mainland investment
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-24 15:52 The island's largest carrier, China Airlines Ltd.,
said on Thursday it was waiting for a response from Beijing after the island's
authority approved the company's investment in a cargo airline in the Chinese
mainland.
China Airlines will pay US$40 million (euro34 million) for 25
percent of Yangtze River Express Airlines Co., a wholly owned unit of the
mainland's Hainan Airlines Co., the island's Investment Commission said in a
statement on Wednesday.
Even though direct transportation links between Taiwan and the mainland ended in
1949 when the two sides split at the end of a civil war, The island's airlines
have been aiming to expand their cargo operations in the mainland's market, as
the island's air cargo volume is shrinking.
The commission said that the island's two shipping companies, Yang
Ming Marine Transport Corp. and Wan Hai Lines Ltd., would also be allowed to
invest in the mainland's company.
Yang Ming Marine, Taiwan's second-largest shipping company by fleet size,
will pay US$19.2 million (euro16.2 million) for its stake, while Wan Hai will
pay US$9.6 million (euro8.1 million), the commission said.
Yang Ming Marine said earlier it planned to take a 12 percent stake in
Yangtze River Express, while Wan Hai said it planned to buy a 6 percent stake.
Local media reported in September that Yang Ming Marine, Wan Hai Lines and
Luxembourg's Cargolux Airlines International SA planned to jointly buy a stake
of 49 percent in the mainland's company. Cargolux later pulled out of the deal.
China Airlines is now waiting for the Beijing authorities to approve the
deal, company spokesman Johnson Sun said.
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