Orix Corp. said Thursday it will invest 550 million yen around December to acquire a 25 percent stake in China's first railway car leasing company.

China Railway Leasing Co. will shortly be set up jointly with China Railway Materials & Supplies Corp., a state-run firm based in Beijing that will put up the remainder of the capital, Japan's largest leasing company said.

China Railway Leasing, to be capitalized at the equivalent of 2.2 billion, yen will lease railway control equipment and maintenance machines and materials to China's Ministry of Railways in addition to rolling stock.

Orix hopes to take advantage of its planned entry into the railway leasing business to offer a broad range of leasing services in China, company officials said.

The Chinese government plans to invest 26 trillion yen by 2020 to build the nation's railway network.

Beijing appears to have decided that foreign capital is indispensable to implementing the plan, analysts said.