MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Stock Exchange has approved the P22.3-billion initial public offering (IPO) of the airline unit of tycoon John Gokongwei.

The IPO application of Cebu Air Inc., which operates budget carrier Cebu Pacific, was approved by the PSE board of directors in a meeting on Wednesday. The listing was tentatively set on May 4.

Cebu Air will offer 235 million common shares at a maximum price of P95 per share.

Of the total shares, 164.89 million will be sold to international investors while the remaining 47.11 million shares will be sold to local ones. Another 35.3 million common shares have been earmarked to cover overallotment.

JP Morgan Securities and Deutsche Bank are lead managers for the international offer while ATR KimEng is the domestic underwriter.

Proceeds from the capital-raising activity will be used for pre-delivery or downpayments for new aircraft.

Cebu Air earlier said it was spending P9.1 billion for aircraft payments over the next 4 years to boost its fleet to 47 from 29 aircraft by 2014.

The company currently has an extensive network serving 50 domestic routes and 21 international destinations, with a total of 1,710 weekly flights.