International financier George Soros placed 25 million US dollars of new investment for Grand China Air, an air service conglomerate that is still in the making by Hainan Airlines Group, China's fourth largest air carrier.

"I made a prior investment in Hainan Airlines ten years ago as I believed it was the most efficient air company in China", said Soros at a press conference here last Saturday, "Today I increase investment because I think Hainan Airlines remains a company with incremental potential."

Chen Feng, president of the board with Hainan Airlines Group, disclosed that Grand China Air would be inaugurated when five billion yuan (about 617 million US dollars) in private equities would be raised by the end of the year.

As a prelude to Grand China Air, the planned new air conglomerate, four air companies -- Hainan Airlines Ltd, Xinhua Airlines, Shanxi Airlines and Chang'an Airlines -- were merged in August 2002 under Xinhua Air CO. Ltd, another newly established air service company with limited responsibility on which the planned Grand China Air will be based, and the result was positive too, said Chen.

"I think establishment of the projected Grand China Air will help optimize the existing resources of Hainan Airlines, improve its service and competing capabilities," said Chen.

Thanks to 12 years of sustainable development, Hainan Airlines Group, with headquarters based in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, now owns a fleet of 107 airplanes and operates over 500 air routes to about 100 cities around the world.

Source: Xinhua