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PETRON
Corp. will gain a strong financial backing from the sale
of Aramco Overseas Co.’s (AOC) 40-percent stake in
Petron to global asset-management firm Ashmore Group
Plc.
This was
the assessment of Conrade F. Bate, president of online
stock-brokerage firm CitisecOnline.com Inc., in an
interview with the BusinessMirror.
“Ashmore
has the financial muscle, which Petron could tap into
should it require funding for future expansion,” he
said. Ashmore is a global asset-management company
listed on the London Stock Exchange with $36.5 billion
in assets under management as of end 2007. It has a
strong track record of constructive partnerships
worldwide, including significant Philippines-related
investments over a period of many years.
Bate,
however, said Petron will be missing Aramco’s expertise
on the oil sector.
“I think
investors will be keeping an eye on that concern.
They’ll monitor, for instance, what could Ashmore bring
into Petron apart from financial support,” he explained.
Aramco
is a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia Oil Co. (Saudi
Aramco), based in Leiden, the Netherlands. It operates
primarily in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa,
providing its affiliates in the Saudi Aramco global oil
and gas enterprise with a wide range of services
including finance support, supply-chain management,
technical-support services and a variety of
administrative-support services.
On
Friday, AOC announced it has entered into share and
purchase agreement with Ashmore for the sale of its 40-
percent ownership in Petron. Ashmore, through unit SEA
Refinery Holdings, offered $550 million (P22.5 billion)
for AOC’s 3.75 billion shares in the country’s oil
giant.
Publicly
trade Petron is 40-percent owned by the state-owned
Philippine National Oil Co. The public holds 20 percent
of the fuel retailer.
Petron
shares closed at P6 each Friday. |
