CNOOC may cut stake: Report

CNOOC may cut stake: Report

BEIJING: The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)
is willing to ask the government to reduce its majority stake in
the company to remove a political obstacle to overseas
acquisitions, a report said on Thursday.

CNOOC chief executive Fu Chengyu said a cut in the
government's holding would help address claims that CNOOC was an
instrument of government energy policy rather than a commercial
company, the Financial Times said.

One idea would be for the government to retain a "golden
share," a device used in the past by some European governments to
retain the right to veto takeovers of strategically important
companies, he was quoted as saying.

CNOOC's links to the government were used by Chevron Corp to
generate political opposition to the Chinese company's rival bid
for US energy company Unocal Corp earlier this year.

More than 70 percent of the shares in CNOOC, which is listed
overseas in New York and Hong Kong, are held by its wholly state-
owned parent company.-- AFP