Hong Kong total MTR patronage hit a record high of 867 million passengers, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year, Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) said on Tuesday.

Announcing its audited results for 2005 on Tuesday, the MTR said it achieved strong financial results in 2005 with contributions from all its businesses, according to a government press release.

Total MTR revenue hit 9.15 billion HK dollars (1.18 billion U.S.dollars), 9.6 percent higher than the previous year, while net profit attributable to equity shareholders, excluding revaluation of investment properties and net of deferred tax, rose 36.7 percent to 6.14 billion (792 million U.S. dollars).

Fare revenue for the MTR Lines rose 5.6 percent, to 5.72 billion HK dollars (738 million U.S. dollars) while that for the Airport Express Line increased 8.9 percent, to 561 million (72.2 million U.S. dollars).

Non-fare revenue, including advertising, telecommunications, station commercial business, property rental and management income as well as income from consultancy business, grew 18.7 percent to 2.87 billion HK dollars (370 million U.S. dollars).

In 2005, the MTR group's investment property revaluation yielded a profit of 2.8 billion HK dollars (361 million U.S. dollars) pre-tax.

The MTR group has recommended a final dividend of 0.28 HK dollar which, when combined with the interim dividend of 0.14 HK dollar, brings the full year dividend to 0.42 HK dollar.

Source: Xinhua