Struggling Taiwan bullet train firm picks new boss

TAIPEI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan's bullet train operator picked a government-backed chairman on Tuesday, a move seen ensuring that debt-strapped High Speed Rail Corp (2633.TWO) stays afloat amid mounting losses.

Current Chief Executive Ou Chin-der would take over immediately from Nita Ing as chairman, the company said, giving the government control over the popular 345-km (214-mile) north-south railway system, which opened in early 2007 as one of two bullet train routes in Asia after Japan's.

"The most important thing is to make sure the high-speed rail remains in operation," Taiwan Premier Wu Den-yih told reporters ahead of Ou's appointment.

The government would ultimately take over management of the company but had no plan to inject money or buy company, local media quoted Transport Minister Mao Chi-kuo as saying.

Mao told Reuters in May that the rail operator would be profitable if not for high interest rates and that the government was talking with a banking consortium to lower rates. [ID:nTP153257]

Installing a government-backed chairman was expected to increase the possibility that the consortium would issue a lower-interest loan, deputy transport minister Yeh Kuang-shih said.

High Speed Rail recorded a net loss of about T$25 billion ($770 million) last year, and has been trying to turn a profit for years as part of its long delayed plan to list on Taiwan's main stock exchange.

The company also has a combined debt of about T$380 billion in bank loans and in European convertible bonds. (Reporting by Ralph Jennings and Lin Miao-jung; Editing by Chris Lewis)