London oil firm Addax in deal talk
CHINESE state-owned refiner Sinopec is making a brazen £4.8bn bid for Addax Petroleum, outbidding competitors including the Korean National Oil Corporation.
Sinopec is understood to still be in early talks with London-listed Addax, in the latest move by China to buy into global oil reserves, as it seeks to secure assets to fuel its unprecedented economic growth.
The sale of Addax, which has oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan and Nigeria, is being managed by Canadian investment bank RBC.
If the deal goes ahead, Addax boss Jean Claude Gandur will become the second billionaire from an acquisition involving Kurdistan-operating companies this month. Gandur owns 3.6 per cent of the company, and controls an investment arm in Addax which is worth 35 per cent.
The news comes after Heritage Oil merged with Turkey’s Genel Enerji last week, leaving Heritage’s controversial founder Tony Buckingham with 16 per cent of the new group, worth around $1bn (£6.3m).
China is taking advantage of the relatively low oil price to make sizeable acquisitions overseas.