CNOOC, the mainland's largest offshore oil and gas producer, raised US$1.8 billion from the sale of 2.27 billion shares at US$0.79 each in its first share placement since its 2001 Hong Kong listing. The sale, which follows the recent purchase of two oil assets in Nigeria for US$2.5 billion, represents a 5.38% discount on Wednesday's closing price of US$0.84. Some fund managers told the South China Morning Post the discount was not attractive enough, but the placement was still about five times covered. State-owned parent China National Offshore Oil Corp also sold 230 million existing shares at the same price, with proceeds to be contributed to the National Social Security Fund. It was the mainland's fourth largest share placement after China Mobile (Hong Kong) raised US$6.86 billion in October 2000 and US$2 billion in October 1999, and PetroChina raised US$2.71 billion in August last year.
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