China Eastern Airlines to add wholly owned subsidiary

China Eastern Airlines Co Ltd will make China United Airlines Co Ltd (CUA) its wholly owned subsidiary by acquiring the CUA shares it doesn't already own, China Eastern said on Aug 23.

The transfer price of the shares, 20 percent of the total, will be 83.95 million yuan ($13.22 million).

China Eastern currently is an 80 percent shareholder of CUA. Since May, the other 20 percent of CUA's shares was transferred from China Aviation Supplies Holding Co to China Eastern Air Holding Co, which is also a shareholder of China Eastern Airlines.

China Eastern Air Holding wants sell its shares to China Eastern Airlines, and the two parties signed an agreement on Wednesday to do so.

CUA is a civil commercial airlines based at Beijing Nanyuan Airport. The airline has 12 Boeing 737 aircraft and worked on freight and passenger transport between 50 cities in China as of June 2011.

According CUA's plan, the airlines will expand its fleet to 50 aircraft by 2015.