Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp yesterday approved TransAsia Airways Corp's application for a primary listing on the main bourse, the exchange said in a statement.

The Taipei-based international carrier currently trades its shares on the GRETAI Securities Market's emerging stock bourse, with its shares closing unchanged at NT$19.5 yesterday.

TransAsia has proposed to issue 22.22 million shares for the listing on the main bourse and tentatively set the issue price at NT$18 a share, according to a prospectus the company sent to the exchange earlier.

The carrier is expected to raise about NT$400 million (US$13.77 million) in funds from the listing by the end of the fourth quarter to expand its fleet and generate more revenue amid growing passenger demand.

In June, TransAsia ordered six new Airbus A321neo aircraft at the Paris Air Show, with each plane worth US$106 million at catalogue prices during the show. Normally, customers would negotiate lower prices with aircraft makers.

TransAsia -- which last month predicted revenues to continue growing in the third quarter on more charter flight services between Taiwan and mainland China and between Taiwan and Japan -- yesterday posted NT$863.86 million in revenue for last month, up 3.35 percent from a year earlier.

In the first seven months of the year, accumulated revenue totaled NT$4.93 billion, representing an increase of 4.72 percent from the same period of last year, company data showed.

With a capitalization of NT$4.8 billion, TransAsia posted NT$409.21 in pre-tax profit in the first half, or NT$0.72 earnings per share.

The company reported a net profit of NT$917.65 million last year, or NT$1.91 in earnings per share, and NT$12.86 million in 2009, or NT$0.03 a share, data showed.

Separately, China Airlines Ltd, Taiwan's largest carrier, on Monday reported NT$12.27 billion in revenue for last month, up 11.14 percent month-on-month, but down 7.34 percent year-on-year.

From January to last month, cumulative revenue totaled NT$76.29 billion, 4.58 percent lower than a year earlier, because of slow cargo business, CAL's data showed.

EVA Airways, Taiwan's second-largest carrier, on Monday also posted revenue up 9 percent month-on-month to NT$9.71 billion last month. However, the number was down 1.21 percent from a year earlier because of slow recovery in cargo traffic on both the U.S. and European routes, according to the company.

In the first seven months, total revenue fell by 0.68 percent to NT$59.56 billion, EVA said.