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.