DEALSOFTHEYEAR
Thetoptransactionsof2009
China'slargestoffshoreacquisition,itsfirst
internationalpharmaceuticalIPO,the
Philippineslargestlocalcorporatebondand
theyear'sbiggestleveragedfinancing.
ASIAMONEYrevealsthetopregionalcapital
marketsdealsof2009.
BESTM&A
ChinaPetrochemicalCorp.(Sinopec)C$10.3billion(US$9
billion)acquisitionofAddaxPetroleum
AdvisertoSinopec:CreditSuisse
AdviserstoAddax:BNPParibas;RBCCapitalMarkets
In a poor year for M&A, no Asia transaction truly stood out for
breaking new ground.
There were a number of financial deals done, especially in
conjunction with troubled US insurance company AIG, but the
only consolidation of true size, the sale of Nan Shan
Insurance, had not closed by our November 30 cut-off date
because of regulator concerns about the identity of financial
backers of bidders Primus and China Strategic.
The other area to see a sizeable number of transactions was
resources and mining. China was the principal driver of this,
with various state-owned companies taking advantage of poor
markets to buy oil, gas, and mining companies.
In this area two deals stood out. The first was China
Minmetals’ acquisition of OZ Minerals in Australia. The sec-
ond is this year’s winner: Sinopec’s acquisition of the Toronto-
listed, Switzerland-headquartered Addax Petroleum.
Sinopec is Asia’s largest oil refiner, but because Beijing
keeps tight controls over the domestic price of oil it cannot
pass through all price fluctuations to its end consumers. That
has made it increasingly important for Sinopec to buy oil pro- very separate geographies. For that reason Asiamoney feels it
ducing assets. deserves to be M&A deal of the year.
Addax made for an interesting and sizeable fit. It owns oil
field concessions in Iraq’s northern Kurdish territory, as well
as oil fields in West Africa. The acquisition thus offered BESTIPO
Sinopec geographic distribution. It bought Addax for C$52.8 a SinopharmGroupHK$10billion(US$1.3billion)IPO
share, a 47% premium to its close on June 5. Bookrunners:CICC;MorganStanley;UBS
While a sizeable premium, Sinopec has since announced
that its oil production has risen by one million barrels a year as
a result. It was also China’s largest overseas acquisition, offer- After a sluggish start to the year, a number of prominent initial
ing it a notable success in the global oil and gas arena. public offerings (IPOs) were conducted during 2009. Two in
Minmetals’ US$850 million acquisition of OZ Minerals was particular stand out: Sinopharm’s Hong Kong listing and
also praiseworthy. However OZ was on the edge of bankruptcy Maxis’ re-listing on the Bursa Malaysia.
just ahead of the sale, making it a highly motivated seller. That Maxis has the advantage of size, raising US$3.3 billion to
also meant that Canberra was keen to allow the consolidation. become south-east Asia’s largest IPO. But while its listing went
Despite that, Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board well, it looked as if politics was involved in the company’s
still batted the M&A offer back once because of the proximity return.
of OZ’s Prominent Hill site to weapons testing fields. The deal The news that Maxis would re-list was revealed by
had to be restructured to exclude this facility before it could Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, not company founder
proceed. Ananda Krishnan. Razak had previously called for big
Overall Sinopec’s acquisition looks more accretive to Malaysian companies to list on the local bourse to boost its
China’s resources drive, while giving the company links to two size and prestige.
36 DEC2009/JAN2010 ASIAMONEY
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