Korea National Oil to Sell as Much as $1 Billion Debt to Fund Acquisitions

Korea National Oil Corp. plans to sell as much as $1 billion of debt to fund takeovers, Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday, the latest sign Asia’s biggest economies are competing to secure global energy resources. State owned Korea National, engaged in a $2.6 billion hostile takeover battle for Dana Petroleum Plc, plans to raise between $500 million and $1 billion selling bonds, Yonhap said. Calls to the company’s media department yesterday twice went unanswered.

China, second to the U.S. as a global energy consumer, and South Korea, the world’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas, are being joined by Japan and India in seeking to buy stakes in the resources needed to boost their economies. State and private companies in the four nations have bid for more than $56 billion worth of energy resources worldwide this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China Petrochemical Corp. in April paid $4.65 billion, about 20 percent more than analysts expected, for a 9 percent stake in oil sands producer Syncrude Canada Ltd. Together with Cnooc Ltd., the Chinese oil company may offer at least $7 billion for Brazil oil assets and a stake in OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Sept. 10.....Read the entire article.

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