Wing On Travel strikes HK$412.6m train deal

Firm to buy 72pc equity in luxury travel operator

Travel services provider Wing On Travel (Holdings) has struck a HK$412.6 million deal to buy a majority stake in a company with the right to operate luxury trains between Beijing and travel destinations Lhasa and Lijiang.

The deal would also see Wing on, controlled by maverick deal-maker Charles Chan Kwok-keung, contribute about 230.5 million yuan towards the construction of train cars, with commercial operation of the Tangula train services scheduled to start in the third quarter of next year.

In a statement, Wing On said it had signed an agreement to buy new shares in Tangula Group, representing 72 per cent of the latter's enlarged issued share capital.

Tangula International, which wholly owns Tangula Group, is a British Virgin Island-registered company, according to a Wing On announcement on May 9 on its obtaining an option to make the acquisition. No other details were given. Tangula Group has an indirect 49 per cent stake in a joint venture with state-owned Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the operator of the world's highest railway inaugurated in July last year.

The joint venture, Tangula Railtours, was set up to operate luxury travel trains on the mainland under the trademarks Tangula and Tangula Express. It has the right to operate luxury trains between Beijing and Lhasa, Xizang autonomous region and Beijing to Lijiang, Yunnan province, for 50 years. It also has exclusive right to run luxury trains on the Qinghai-Tibet railway for 16 years.

The hospitality aspects of the train service would be commissioned to Key International Hotels Management, an affiliate of Kempinski Hotels, Wing On said.