Disney to submit Shanghai theme park plan to China

Walt Disney Co intends to submit a plan for a Shanghai theme park to Chinese government officials, the company said Friday.

Disney said it will submit plans for the park, which would be its second resort in China, together with the Shanghai government, but that no deal has been signed and no project has yet been approved.

A Disney spokesman declined to comment on when the plan will be submitted to government officials and how long it would take the Chinese government to approve the plan.

The project must be approved by China's central government in order for it to move forward.

Disney proposes to own a 43 percent equity stake in the Shanghai theme park and a local government-owned joint venture holding company would own 57 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The park is expected to cost $3.59 billion, it said.

The company has engaged in on-again, off-again talks for more than a decade with Chinese officials over plans to build a large theme park and hotel complex in the southern outskirts of Shanghai's Pudong district.

The Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday that the plan calls for Shanghai Disneyland to open to the public in 2013. The paper also said Shanghai Lujiazui Group and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Group would participate in the construction of the project.

Talks were stalled by a Shanghai government scandal in 2006 and Disney's need to focus on Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened in 2005 to a string of operational problems and lackluster attendance.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)