HONG KONG - Hainan-based Grand China Airlines plans to raise about US$2 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong later this year, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Monday.

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The South China Morning Post cited Grand China Air's chairman Chen Feng as saying the company will list shares as a Hong Kong incorporated red chip firm to get higher valuation, rather than as a mainland incorporated H-share company.

UBS and Goldman Sachs are the financial advisers of the IPO, the paper said. It gave no further listing details.

China's aviation authorities earlier this month granted an operating licence to Grand China Airlines, which plans to take over the main assets of Hainan Airlines Co. Ltd. and three other small airlines, paving the way for a listing of the carrier.

Grand China Air, which is 18.64 percent owned by billionaire financier George Soros, is in the process of taking over the major aviation assets of Hainan Airlines, Xinhua Air, Changan Air and Shanxi Air, and the carrier would seek a stock market listing after the restructuring is completed, a company official had said. (US$1=HK$7.8)