China Eastern Airlines will get financing support of 50 billion yuan (about $7.60 billion) from China Development Bank over the next five years, according to an agreement signed here Wednesday.

The fund will be used by China Eastern to purchase and hire aircraft, as well as build hangars and other facilities during the 12th five-year-plan period (2011-2015).

Twenty billion yuan of the money will be given in the form of medium-term notes, short-term bonds or corporate debts and 30 billion yuan will be in loans, according to the agreement.

Also on Wednesday, China Eastern issued 500 million yuan of medium-term notes, which is the first batch of the total 1.2 billion yuan of medium-term notes it registered for issue recently.

China Eastern, one of the country's three largest air carriers, reported 13.9 billion yuan of losses in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, but made profits of 540 million yuan in 2009.

The company's profits in 2010, yet to be released, are estimated to be 10 times that of 2009 and the company aims to lower its asset-liability ratio from the present 90 percent to 70 percent by the end of 2015, said Liu Shaoyong, general manager of China Eastern Airlines.

The air carrier's shares opened at 6.51 yuan Wednesday, down 0.61 percent on the previous day.

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