Sinopec to raise $3.1 bn in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec Corp, yesterday said it plans to raise HK$24 billion ($3.1 billion) in order to use it for ''general corporate purposes.''

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, said that it would place 2.85 billion Hong Kong-listed shares at HK$8.45 each.

The state-owned Beijing-based company, which is also listed in Shanghai, recently acquired various overseas oil and gas assets worth between $12 billion - $15 billion, with plans for more acquisitions.

Sinopec, is one of the most aggressively acquisitive hydrocarbons companies among Chinese oil firms. It executed its first deal in the US early last year, when it invested $2.2 billion in Oklahoma-based Devon Energy in exchange for one-third of its interest in five shale gas acreages.

Last year, Sinopec acquired a stake in Chevron Corp's deepwater Indonesian project, an Australian LNG joint venture, a $3.54-billion deal to buy 30 per cent of Galp Energia's Brazilian deep-sea oil asset and spent $2.1 billion in acquiring Canada's Daylight Energy Ltd.

In November 2012, it acquired a 20-per cent stake in French oil and gas giant Total's Nigeria's Usan offshore oilfield for approximately $2.5 billion in an all-cash deal. (See: Total to sell Nigerian oilfield stake to China's Sinopec for $2.5 bn)