Singapore's Changi Airports International (CAI) has signed a deal to buy 29 percent of Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Jiangsu province of eastern China, a report said Monday.

"We are taking a stake in one of China's fastest-growing secondary airports which is just hours away from the overcrowded Shanghai airport," The Business Times quoted CAI chief executive Chow Kok Fong as saying.

A CAI spokesperson confirmed the report.

Business Times said the CAI stake is valued at 900 million yuan (122 million US dollars).

At the signing of an initial agreement for the deal last January, Chow said it represents the first private-equity investment deal in a Chinese airport by a foreign airport.

"There is a lot of scope to develop this airport into a major player next to Shanghai," The Business Times quoted him on Monday as saying.

"This is particularly so for air cargo," he said.

CAI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, invests in and manages airports around the world.