Appleby acted as British Virgin Islands counsel for CNPC General Capital Limited, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, the largest integrated oil and gas company in the PRC, in relation to the issuance of guaranteed senior notes due 2016, 2018 and 2023, respectively, in an aggregate principal amount of US$2 billion. This is CNPC’s biggest overseas bond to date.
The net proceeds from the sale of the Notes will be advanced by CNPC General Capital Limited to a company controlled by CNPC outside the PRC and used for CNPC’s overseas operations.
The Appleby team was led by Judy Lee, a corporate partner at Appleby, and assisted by Associate, Chris Cheng. Shearman & Sterling acted for CNPC General Capital Limited as to US and Hong Kong laws, while Jun He Law Offices advised on PRC law.
“We have seen an increase in investment and related fund raising activities amongst China’s state-owned enterprises in recent months, partly due to the introduction of the going-global policy. This deal underlines the country’s growing presence in the international debt market and we expect this issuance to pave way for other SOEs to take similar actions,” said Judy.
