China Eastern Rises 11 Percent On Restructuring Talk

Shares in China Eastern Airlines rose nearly 11 percent on Thursday on talk that it may sell stakes in smaller regional carriers and renewed speculation it may merge with Shanghai Airlines.
China Eastern is looking to sell a 30 percent stake in Joy Air to alleviate its strapped finances, company sources said on Tuesday.
In addition to Joy Air, market talk also pointed to stake sales in Wuhan and Yunnan airlines as China Eastern struggles with its high gearing ratio despite a recent CNY7 billion yuan capital injection.
The airline said earlier this week it would report a large loss for 2008 because of slumping traffic and losses on fuel price hedging contracts