Sinopec seeks capacity with Addax bid

ELAINE KURTENBACH The Associated press SHANGHAI–Sinopec, with its $7.2 billion bid for Addax Petroleum, is seeking crucial production capacity and coveted reserves in West Africa and the Middle East to help balance its heavy reliance on crude oil processing. News that Addax's board had approved the offer by Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., helped push the Beijing-based company's shares up more than 2 percent Thursday, though they later fell back to close just 0.4 per cent higher at 10.56 yuan. The deal would be the largest ever overseas takeover by a Chinese company, although is only half the size of last year's acquisition by Aluminum Corp. of China, with Alcoa Corp., of a 12 per cent stake in global miner Rio Tinto PLC. That deal was worth $14.3 billion. The proposed acquisition must still be... [read full story]                    

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