SINGAPORE (Nov 20): Tiger Airways Holdings is up 1.2% at $0.41 after Singapore Exchange approves a key part of a previously announced plan by Singapore Airlines to take the unprofitable discount carrier private.

Singapore Exchange Friday says it has given its “in-principle” approval for the listing of 12.5 million new shares of Singapore Airlines as part of the merger plan between the two airlines under which Singapore Airlines will buy all the shares of Tiger Airways that it doesn’t already own.

Although considered a routine step, the proposed merger could have been jeopardised if the exchange had said no.

Singapore Airlines is up 0.8% to $10.66, while the local benchmark Straits Times Index is down 0.5%.