Kaohsiung MRT system bankruptcy rumors denied

Hales Liu, chairman of the company running the southern city's MRT, said he had never had plans to declare bankruptcy for the system.

He claimed that the rumors about the MRT going bankrupt were spread from within the company and he suspected that there was an attempt at a board-room coup.

But he admitted that the system's losses have already reached half of its paid-in capital.

The Next magazine in its latest issue published yesterday claimed that Liu had told the board of directors that the company would declare insolvency in June as it had lost half of its capital.

Liu said a company would go bankrupt when its losses exceed its assets, and Kaohsiung's MRT has not yet come to that point.

The system has assets worth NT$42.8 billion, with debts amounting to NT$37.7 billion, Liu said.

He said he is only planning to give a report to the board of directors on the company's financial status in June with no plans to make any decisions.

But Kaohsiung City Councilor Chao Tien-lin from the Democratic Progressive Party demanded Liu step down for “spreading” negative news about the company he runs.

Kaohsiung MRT has been running at low capacity since it opened to the public two years ago this month.

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