With the bang of the auctioneer's hammer Wednesday afternoon at Longyang Station, Shanghai Sinhoo Real Estate Co Ltd won the right to name China's first maglev train for a price of 20.9 million yuan (US$2.53 million), edging out close rival Shanghai Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co Ltd by a mere 100,000 yuan (US$12,090).
Shanghai Sinhoo Real Estate Co Ltd, a property development firm, is a subsidiary of Zhejiang Sinhoo Co Ltd, a listed company based in Hangzhou.
As ruled, the winner will enjoy the right to name the train for two years and will be entitled to advertise in the train over the same period. In addition, a specific number of seats on every train will be reserved for the winner.
The deal greatly pleased Wu Xiangming, general manager of Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co Ltd (SMT), who promised to take Song Xiaojun, SMT vice-general manager, as well as other top officials for dinner to celebrate.
"Personally, I thought 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) would be the highest offer. Both businesses and the media have been very excited about this, but you can hardly imagine the intangible benefits the successful bidder and ourselves will receive from all this," said Xu Juchuan, director of the Planning and Dealing Division of SMT.
It was not surprising to see a strong company with such strategic farsightedness win the bid, especially one from nearby Zhejiang Province, Xu said.
The winner is required to pay the bid price within five days, after which their name, "Xinhu Mingzhu Hao" (meaning Sinoo Pearl), will be inscribed on the train.
"It is a multiple-win, for the city, SMT and our company," said Chen Jian, general manger of the winning company. "The train represents both the speed of the city's growth and its international prestige and we want to keep pace with it."
Chen revealed the final bid was actually lower than the amount they had originally planned to offer.
The company has more than 4 million square meters of property under construction in the country, so the price is just a small investment that will bring a huge return.
Over 55 enterprises expressed interest in the auction, nine of which including private businesses and joint ventures engage in food, beverage, clothes and transportation operations and paid the 1-million-yuan (US$121,000) refundable application fee to participate in the competition.
(China Daily March 6, 2003)
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