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