Upon submitting a formal application to float on the Shanghai stock market, the plan of Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway to do initial public offering (IPO) revealed its lucrative profits.

The 1,300km (807 miles) section of line between Beijing and Shanghai shows a net profit reaching 9.5 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in the first nine months of 2019, representing a 38 percent margin on its revenue.

This revenue is higher than the US company iPhone maker Apple and China's maker of the world's most popular liquor, Kweichow Moutai.

The filing indicated that the rail company had 10.2 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) full-year net profit in 2018, an increase of 13 percent from 2017.

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway is seeking a listing to raise funds so it can buy other railways in southeast China's Anhui province.

China State Railway Group, which owns a 50 percent stake in the high-speed rail operator company, wants to use its share of the profits to revamp less profitable lines.

The success of the Beijing-Shanghai line, on which trains run at speeds of up to 350km/h (217mph), is attributable to the journey time between the two cities getting cut down to 4½ hours.

Likewise, the company's success is due to the demand for luxury and comfort being high in these parts of China.

A first-class ticket for 's Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway one-way trip is 933 yuan (US$130), or about the same as a plane ticket.

The railway operator's standard seats are cheaper at 553 yuan.

In 2018, it had 192 million passengers accounting for about 6 percent of those who traveled by high-speed rail in China.

The average occupancy this 2019 is at 80 percent.

Though China Railway reported a net loss of 205 million yuan (US$29 million) in the first half of this 2019 and at the end of that period accumulated outstanding debts of 5.29 trillion yuan (US$750 billion), analysts say that Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway's planned IPO is going to do fine because of its healthy financial position and bright prospects.

Wu Kan, an investment manager at Soochow Securities in Shanghai, pointed out the lack of "a listing of a company from China's railway sector in a very long time" adding that this is will do China's capital markets good.

At the end of September this year, the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, which has only 67 employees, had 187 billion yuan in assets and liabilities of 27 billion yuan.

The IPO filing indicated that besides China Railway, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway other shareholders are Ping An Asset Management with 11.4 percent stake and China Social Security Fund with 7.15 percent.