• 723 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 724 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 725 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 1,125 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 1,130 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 1,132 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 1,135 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 1,135 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 1,136 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 1,138 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 1,138 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 1,142 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 1,142 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 1,143 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 1,145 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 1,146 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 1,149 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 1,150 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 1,150 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 1,152 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

Is The Bull Market On Its Last Legs?

This aging bull market may…

Zombie Foreclosures On The Rise In The U.S.

Zombie Foreclosures On The Rise In The U.S.

During the quarter there were…

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Forever 21 filed for Chapter…

Ian Campbell

Ian Campbell

Through his www.BusinessTransitionSimplified.com website and his Business Transition & Valuation Review newsletter Ian R. Campbell shares his perspectives on business transition, business valuation and world…

Contact Author

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

China Continues To Buy Strategic Assets

As you no doubt know, yesterday China National Offshore Oil Corporation made a $15 billion, 61% premium to market, bid for Nexen Inc. Nexen's portfolio includes:

  • conventional oil and gas assets in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and offshore West Africa;

  • oil sands investments and assets in Alberta, Canada; and,

  • less consequential assets in Columbia and Poland.

Aside from the obvious, my comments are:

  • this is but one more example of China's interest and reach with respect to assets it perceives strategic to it in the long term;

  • it is unlikely to be a transaction the Canadian government will interfere with;

  • it reinforces questions related to the Keystone pipeline and its turndown by U.S. President Obama earlier this year;

  • it ought to cause America and American politicians to 'sit up very straight and take notice of what is going on the western Canada resource landscape;

  • it speaks directly to the financial markets pricing of assets China and others may find strategic - in spite of, or perhaps because of, the current difficult and uncertain economic times; and,

  • a 61% 'premium to market' is 'large by convention', and causes one to wonder whether there were or are other potential bidders'

Topical References: CNOOC's Nexen bid an indication of how far goal posts have moved, from The Globe and Mail, Jeff Rubin, July 24, 2012 - reading time 3 minutes; and As China costs rise, technology lures factories home, from Reuters, Scott Malone and Ernest Scheyder, July 24, 2012 - reading time 3 minutes.

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment