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Overview

Bank of China provides $1 billion USD loan to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. to facilitate its acquisition of Keppel Oil and Gas Services' ownership stake in Singapore Petroleum Company

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$1,387,317,770
Commitment Year2009Country of ActivitySingaporeDirect Recipient Country of IncorporationSingaporeSectorIndustry, Mining, ConstructionFlow TypeLoan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Jan 1, 2009
Start (actual)
Oct 1, 2009
End (actual)
Oct 1, 2009
Last repayment (originally scheduled)
Jan 1, 2012

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% Chinese ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

  • Bank of China (BOC)

Receiving agencies

State-owned companies

  • PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Guarantors

State-owned companies

  • PetroChina Company Limited

Loan description

Bank of China provides $1 billion loan to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. to facilitate its acquisition of Keppel Oil and Gas Services' ownership stake in Singapore Petroleum Company

Interest typeUnknownMaturity3 years

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

In 2009, Bank of China issued a loan worth approximately $1 billion USD to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte Ltd to facilitate PetroChina's acquisition of Keppel Oil and Gas Services Pte. Ltd.'s 45.5% stake in Singapore Petroleum Company. The loan reportedly carried a 3-year maturity. It was backed by a corporate repayment guarantee from PetroChina, the parent company of PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. In June 2009, PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and Keppel Oil and Gas Services Pte Ltd — a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Keppel Corporation Limited — signed an acquisition agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. acquired a 45.5% ownership stake (over 234.5 million issued shares) in Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) from Keppel Oil and Gas Services Pte Ltd. After the shares in SPC were sold by Keppel Oil and Gas Services Pte Ltd., PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. made a mandatory general cash offer to acquire all the issued shares in SPC, with an offer price of $6.25 SGD per share, which valued SPC at approximately $3.23 billion SGD (approximately $2.2 billion USD) and made the takeover offer one of the largest in Singapore corporate history. PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., completed the mandatory general cash offer for all the remaining shares in the capital of SPC in October 2009.

Staff comments

1. The Chinese project title is 中石油收购新加坡石油提供. 2. A Reuters report identifies the face value of the loan as $1.7 billion USD. Bank of China identifies the face value of the loan as $1 billion USD. For the time being, AidData relies on the conservative estimate that the face value of the loan was $1 billion USD. 3. Allen & Gledhill LLP advised Singapore Petroleum Company Limited (SPC). 4. Singapore Petroleum Company or SPC was delisted from the Singapore Exchange on October 22, 2009 when Chinese oil giant PetroChina completed its takeover of the Singapore firm. 5. It is unclear when the acquisition of 45.5% stake occurred, except that it happened before the takeover. AidData has estimated it occurred by October 2009.