HONG KONG/BEIJING: State-controlled oil giant Sinopec Corp unveiled a plan to sell a $17.5bn stake in its retail business, marking the country’s biggest privatisation push since President Xi Jinping came to power almost two years ago.
The sale is a reflection of the government’s drive to restructure the country’s many sprawling state-owned enterprises. PetroChina, the nation’s No.1 energy producer, has divested part of its pipeline business, raising billions of dollars from domestic institutional investors.
The sale also highlights Sinopec’s hope that outside investors would be a catalyst for growth and reform at its currently low-margin retail unit. But some analysts say a lack of retail names on the investor list is lowering their expectations of a quick turnaround. The presence of private equity firms also presents a risk in which they may exit the business when Sinopec lists the subsidiary in a couple of years.
Sinopec’s retail unit will issue new shares to a group of 25 largely deep-pocketed financial companies like insurers and funds and raise 107.1bn yuan ($17.5bn), the company said in a filing with the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses.
The investors will get a combined 29.99 percent stake in the unit, which comprises a wholesale business, more than 30,000 petrol stations, over 23,000 convenience stores, as well as oil-product pipelines and storage facilities. Each investor would not hold a stake exceeding 2.8 percent.
Besides capital, the investors are expected to bring in “strength and vitality” that will help reform and grow the retail unit, Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu said in a statement. Sinopec will use the $17.5bn from the sale to optimise its fuel retail business, boost non-fuel sales and pay down debts owed to parent company, Chai Zhiming, deputy chief executive of the retail unit, said.
Sinopec is looking for expertise and ideas to boost its non-fuel businesses which include convenience stores and services such as fast food and car washes. Unlike the West, where non-fuel revenue can account for more than half of a filling station’s profits, over 99 percent of Sinopec’s retail sales come from petrol.
“Definitely this is an area that has room for growth,” James Roy, associate principal of Shanghai-based business consultancy China Market Research Group, said of non-fuel business. Reuters
