CNPC sidelined in Rosneft IPO
18 July 2006
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) received just a sixth of the shares it was seeking in Rosneft's US$10.4 billion IPO last week. It placed an order for US$3 billion worth of shares in the Russian oil giant's IPO in London and Moscow, but was allocated a stake worth only US$500 million. CNPC was one of three strategic investors in the float, with BP and Petronas, Malaysia's state oil company, both allocated stakes worth about US$1 billion. Along with a fourth, unnamed, investor, the companies took up nearly half of the Rosneft offering, Russia's biggest flotation and the world's fifth largest. One person familiar with the details told the Financial Times that Chinese demands for better access to reserves in exchange for its investment had backfired.
