Beijing Ferris wheel company in receivership - IFR

HONG KONG, May 3 (Reuters) - Great Beijing Wheel Co, which was set up to build a giant Ferris wheel in the Chinese capital, has gone into receivership after breaching the conditions of a loan, IFR reported.

The project was to be funded by $260 million in equity and debt, a source familiar with the matter told IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. Unicredit was the only secured creditor, being owed around $35-40 million, the report said.

The main investor in the company was private equity fund Global View Investment Fund, managed by ABN Amro's German fund management arm Delbruck Bethmann Maffei, with a 98.5 percent stake, IFR reported.

Ferrier Hodgson and Zolfo Cooper were appointed as administrative receivers, the report said.

The company had been set up by unlisted Singapore-based Great Wheel Corp, which aimed to construct and operate giant Ferris wheels in Beijing, Berlin and Orlando, Florida, after having built one in the city-state.

The Beijing Ferris wheel, when completed, would have overtaken Singapore's as the world's largest at 208 metres high, and was intended as a tribute to the 2008 Olympics.

((Reporting by IFR; Editing by Chris Lewis))

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