Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with words report+sale. 2 news.

CHINA Eastern Airlines Corp, the nation's third-largest carrier, said it is in talks to buy 40 Boeing Co 737 planes and has applied to the government for 40 Airbus SAS A320s to expand its fleet. The planned purchases may help expand the Shanghai-based carrier's fleet by 53 percent to 322 aircraft in 2010 from the current 210, Zhang Jing, a China Eastern spokeswoman, said yesterday, confirming a Reuters report. Singapore Airlines Ltd and parent Temasek Holdings Pte plan to buy a 24-percent stake in China Eastern for HK$7.16 billion (US$918 million), cutting the carrier's debt and easing its "most difficult" period, Chairman Li Fenghua said last week. The cash infusion may help the company pay for the planes to compete with Air China Ltd, according to Bloomberg News. "Carriers are queuing up to buy planes as demand grows," said Ma Ying, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co in Shanghai. "China Eastern's stake sale will enable it to afford the

CENTRO Properties Group, the owner of 700 shopping malls in the United States, slumped 76 percent in Sydney trading and said it was struggling to refinance debt because of the collapse in the US subprime housing market. Melbourne-based Centro suspended dividends and said in a statement that it may have to sell assets, after lenders gave it until February 15 to renegotiate maturing debt. Traditional sources of funding are "shut for business," Chairman Brian Healey said. The share slump wiped A$4.98 billion (US$4.3 billion) from the market value of Centro and Centro Retail Group, the listed real estate investment trust it manages. A sale of assets threatens to undo Chief Executive Officer Andrew Scott's US$9 billion expansion into the US. "Centro are no longer in charge of their own destiny," said Callum Bramah, a Sydney-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd, in a report. "We believe Centro will be required to sell assets at a loss simply to use the cash