Singapore
Airlines is to have management role in China Eastern after taking a
15.7% stake in the carrier
SIA and Singapore government investment arm Temasek Holdings agreed
early in September to acquire a combined 24% of Shanghai-based
China Eastern for HK$7.15 billion ($916 million).
SIA will pay nearly HK$4.7 billion for 15.7% while Temasek will
acquire 8.3% for nearly HK$2.5 billion. The deal still requires
shareholder approvals.
The deal had been under discussion for some time and for China
Eastern it is intended in part to ease shareholder concerns that it
has not acted quickly enough to restructure its operations. China
Eastern is the only one of the "big three" Chinese carriers to have
posted a loss in the first half and the only one not to have
committed to joining a multilateral alliance. Its share price
soared in Hong Kong trading a day after the deal was confirmed.