SHANGHAI: China Eastern Airlines, the second largest airline in the country depending on the size of the fleet, said the red carpet for potential strategic investors, after a merger with former rival local, Shanghai Airlines, rolled.
Restructuring between China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines officially ended yesterday, for a total of more than 150 billion yuan. The new consolidated company has a fleet of 331 planes and flights to 151 cities worldwide, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Frankfurt.
Observers regard Singapore Airlines as an appropriate candidate to be a strategic investor of China Eastern Airlines.
The completion of the transfer of assets will be the first phase of restructuring and we expect China Eastern to improve international competitiveness, for example, strategic cooperation, said Meng Jianmin, vice director of the heritage of state supervision and administration of Commission.
Xulun Ma, general manager of China Eastern, said the airline is actively pursuing strategic partners. We are all strategic partners, said the house dealing with investment and development in eastern New China Ma
Ma refused to give details or timetable for implementation of future strategic partners, and Meng, said that the proportion of the debt of the institution's assets, has seen declining revenues and a record offset the loss of fuel last year.
Ratio of debt of the company to 95 percent, compared with 20 per cent reduction from 2009 figures, according to Meng, but remains higher than the 76.41 percent of Air China and China Southern Airlines 85 73 percent.
Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Eastern, said the restructuring was eight months so far very well received. The airline successfully, black performance in 2009 with the injection of cash from central government and a tax on fuels increased passengers. Recorded a net loss of 13.93 billion yuan in 2008.
The completion of the merger is a milestone for the Chinese aviation industry a global leader in aviation, said Xia Xinghua, deputy director of Civil Aviation of China.
Market observers are still appropriate for Singapore Airlines as a candidate for a strategic investor, despite his cooperation with China Eastern has failed in August 2008. Accepted for Singapore Airlines and the majority shareholder of Temasek Holdings to buy the November 2007 to 24 percent in east China for 920 million U.S. dollars, but the contract was rejected by the minority shareholders of China Eastern, because the price was too low.
