(Yicai Global) May 28 -- Chinese budget carrier Juneyao Airlines plans to issue a private offering to raise up to CNY3.1 billion (USD451 million) in order to buy three Boeing 787 series aircraft and a spare engine as it looks to shape up internationally.

The Shanghai-based firm expects China Eastern Airlines Industry Investment, a unit under the country's second-biggest airline and a 7 percent shareholder in Juneyao, to buy into the placement, the issuer said in a statement yesterday. The funds raised will also go toward repaying bank loans.

Juneyao plans to introduce the wide-body Boeing jet to make better use of global transport hubs like Shanghai and Guangzhou and flex its association with the Star Alliance, an aviation bloc that includes Lufthansa and United Airlines among its roster. The new planes will run intercontinental routes and help Juneyao develop a more global image, it added.

Juneyao Group will remain the carrier's controlling shareholder and the group's Chairman Wang Junjin will still be actual controller of the airline, which amassed CNY14.2 billion in revenue last year, up from CNY9.8 billion in 2016 at a compound growth rate of 20.3 percent. Its compound annual growth rates for total transport, passenger and cargo turnover were 16.2 percent, 16.6 percent and 11 percent over the past two years.

Editor: James Boynton