HONG KONG, May 31 (Reuters) - The joint venture company formed to manage the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park
is likely to be publicly-listed after the park's 2005 opening, said Hong Kong's tourism commissioner Mike Rowse
on Wednesday.
``There probably will be an IPO (initial public offering), but not until after the park's opening,'' he said, speaking
to bankers at the second annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Loan Market Association.
``I think we will get a better price if people see that the park is successful,'' he added.
Under the deal announced in November last year, the government owns 57 percent of the shares in the company, Hong
Kong International Theme Parks Ltd, while Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) holds the remaining 43 percent. Disney is contributing
HK$2.45 billion in equity capital to the project compared to the government's HK$22.45 billion.
Rowse described the deal's financing arrangements as ``robust'' and said the project would be able to ``cope with
very severe downsides in revenue and attendance.''
He declined to give the projected return on equity for the Hong Kong project but said the figure would be above
10 percent but ``well below 20 percent.''
Hong Kong International Theme Parks is seeking around HK$8 billion in loans for the project. The government will
lend nearly HK$6 billion while some HK$2 billion is expected to be met in the commercial bank loan market.
Rowse said the government could have easily provided the company with the HK$2 billion sought from the commercial
market, but it wanted the involvement of commercial bankers.
``We wanted another pair of eyes looking at the contract documents, we wanted someone else monitoring the project,''
he said.
Hong Kong is poised to enjoy ``enormous'' net economic benefits as the park generates more family-oriented tourism
to the territory, he said.
``Frankly, we would have been prepared to have paid for the whole park,'' he said jokingly.