WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - An initial public offering of Continental Airlines Inc.'s (CAL) regional carrier ExpressJet Holdings Inc. will offer more shares to the public in a lower price range, a regulatory filing on Monday said. Shares of Continental, the No. 5 U.S. airline, were up 12 cents to $31.02 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company will own 68.8 percent of the subsidiary, which operates as Continental Express, when the IPO is done. According to an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 20 million common shares of ExpressJet will be sold to the public, up from a previously planned 18.75 million. ExpressJet and Continental will each sell 10 million shares. In early September, ExpressJet was slated to sell 11.5 million shares while Continental was offering 7.25 million shares. The price range for the stock was lowered to $14-$16 apiece from $15-$17, giving the company a potential market value of $896 million to $1.02 billion based on 64 million shares outstanding when the IPO is completed. ExpressJet estimated it will net about $137 million in proceeds from the sale of its 10 million shares and plans to use the money to repay a portion of a note to Continental. The company expects to have $415.1 million in outstanding debt from the note after the proceeds from the IPO are applied, the filing said. Continental, which will own 44 million shares of ExpressJet after the IPO, does not currently plan to be a long-term investor, the filing added. Continental reported last week that it expects to post an unspecified but "significant" loss in the first quarter based on negative cash flow and also saw losses in the fourth quarter and all of 2002. The ExpressJet IPO is being handled by Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Raymond James, which have an option to buy up to 3 million extra shares from Continental to cover any over-allotments. ExpressJet, based in Houston, has been approved for listing on the NYSE under the symbol "XJT" (XJT) but a debut date was not immediately known. Joining the company in its bid to go public is New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp., which recently filed a $125 million IPO.