Shenzhen Metro Group’s 2020 operation revenue reached 20.92 billion yuan (US$3.23 billion) and net profit was 11.1 billion yuan, ranking the first among subway networks in Chinese cities, according to a report from digital media outlet jiemian.com, quoting the annual reports of 22 Metro companies in China.
Shenzhen Metro Group’s profit was more than the total profit of other 21 companies, which was accumulatively 10.6 billion yuan.
The company’s profit-making capability also greatly offset the demand for subsidies. The government subsidy that Shenzhen Metro Group received was only 36 million yuan in 2020, much lower than most of the Chinese Metro companies, the report said.
Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co. Ltd., the operator of Beijing Metro, ranked second on the list with operating revenue of 13.66 billion yuan and net profit of 3.15 billion yuan in 2020. Guangzhou Metro took the third place with operating revenue of 12.8 billion yuan. Its net profit was 230 million yuan. Shanghai Metro’s annual report was unavailable to the public, but according to jiemian.com, its 2017 operating revenue exceeded 10.6 billion yuan.
Among the 22 Metro companies the media outlet surveyed, 15 Metro companies would be in debt if government subsidies were deducted from their financial reports.
In other figures, Chengdu Metro’s total length has surpassed that of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, following Beijing and Shanghai. Its operating revenue was 10 billion in 2020, with a net profit of 1.47 billion yuan. But it received a 9-billion-yuan government subsidy for its operations.
Among 18 Metro companies that have revealed ticket revenues, 14 enterprises’ ticket revenues accounted for less than 50 percent of operating revenue. Ticket revenues for Metro companies in Ningbo, Suzhou and Nanchang took up less than 10 percent of their operating revenues. Most cities adopted the TOD (transit-oriented development) mode that combines Metro construction and property development. For Shenzhen Metro’s 20.8-billion-yuan operating revenue, nearly 15 billion yuan came from property development, accounting for 70 percent of the total operating revenue.
Cities like Beijing, Wuhan, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Nanning also relied heavily on property development. Around 60 percent of Wuhan and Qingdao Metro operators’ revenue came from property development.
By the end of 2000, 45 mainland cities had opened Metro services, operating Metro lines totaling 7,978 kilometers, sources from China Association of Metros showed.