Shanghai to own 57 pct of new Disney park - paper

BEIJING (Reuters) - An investment company controlled by the Shanghai city government will own a majority stake in a planned Disney theme park that won key government approval this week, the People's Daily reported on Thursday.

Shanghai officials on Wednesday announced that the park had gotten key central government approval ahead of a planned visit by U.S. president Barack Obama this month.

They did not release a shareholding structure for the park, and the plan still faces more detailed talks between Disney and Shanghai officials.

The People's Daily, the Communist Party's most important newspaper, said on Thursday that an investment company owned by the municipal government would hold 57 percent of the park, while Walt Disney Co. would take 43 percent. It cited informed sources.

It is expected that the costs of acquiring land and moving existing residents will reach 24 billion yuan ($3.52 billion), in line with the cost of a park in Hong Kong that has struggled with lower-than-expected attendance since it opened in 2005.

Disney has long sought to build in Shanghai, a wealthy city of about 19 million people that is ringed by the prosperous Yangtze Delta, home to tens of millions more potential visitors.

It was less enthusiastic about building near Beijing, a much less prosperous city with few other large population centers in the immediate vicinity.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ken Wills)