CNOOC to step up overseas M&A in the rest of 2009

Following a couple of recent international forays, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said yesterday it would ratchet up its efforts to acquire more energy assets abroad in the upcoming months.

"We should step up our efforts to acquire more resources assets. Studying a strategy for overseas mergers and acquisitions is a focus of our work for the second half and next year," Fu Chengyu, CNOOC's president, was cited as saying, by a news letter published on the firm's Web site.

The Hong Kong-listed offshore oil major announced last week that it would form a 50-50 venture with Sinopec to purchase a 20 percent stake in an oil block offshore Angola from Marathon Oil for $1.3 billion.

Dongfeng-Nissan JV set to expand mainland car plant

Dongfeng Motor Group said its joint venture with Nissan Motor would spend 5 billion yuan ($732 million) to expand a new passenger vehicle plant in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The new plant, with a maximum capacity of 240,000 vehicles a year, will start operations in 2012, it said in a statement yesterday.

The capacity of Dongfeng Nissan, a unit of the joint venture-Dongfeng Motor Co Ltd, will be expanded by more than half to 700,000 vehicles.

Dongfeng said the expansion will safeguard the mid- to longterm business plan of its joint venture.

Formed in 2003, Dongfeng Motor Co is the first joint venture on the mainland to offer such a broad range of vehicular products, including trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles and various passenger cars.

China Unicom: No formal iPhone deal with Apple

China Unicom, one of the top three mobile carriers on the mainland, has reached a preliminary agreement with Apple for the exclusive sale of its iPhone handset on the mainland for three years, the official Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday; however, a China Unicom official said a formal deal had not been reached.

"Discussions are still ongoing; we have not reached any formal agreement," said Sophia Tso, a spokeswoman for China Unicom. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

China Unicom shares were up 1.57 percent, closing at HK$11.68 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.

HKMA sells HK$3.1b to keep HK$ in trading band

The city's de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, yesterday afternoon injected HK$3.1 billion ($400 million) into the money market to stem an appreciating Hong Kong dollar and keep it within its fixed trading band.

The Hong Kong dollar hit the top of its trading band at 7.7500 yesterday as money continued to pour into the local stock market, dealers said.

According to data on Reuters page, the latest intervention will lift the aggregate balance - the sum of balances on clearing accounts maintained by banks with the HKMA - to HK$214.094 billion by July 30.

By 0723 GMT, it was quoted at 7.7500/01.

CC Land Holdings in $271m share sale: term sheet

Property developer CC Land Holdings plans to sell about HK$2.1 billion ($271 million) worth of shares to raise working capital and buy land, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters yesterday.

The company is selling 342.4 million shares in a top-up placement at HK$5.79-HK$6.12 per share, with an option to sell an additional 85.6 million shares.

The price range represented a discount of 7-12 percent on Monday's closing price of HK$6.58, the term sheet showed. Citigroup is a joint bookrunner for the deal.

Reuters

(HK Edition 07/29/2009 page4)