Private company CEFC China Energy will purchase a 51% stake in KMG International, a unit of Kazakhstan’s state oil and natural gas firm KazMunayGaz. A senior official from CEFC valued KMG International at $500 million-1 billion in a statement to Reuters.

Chinese firm acquires controlling stake in KMG International

China

BEIJING, December 15, 2015 – Private company CEFC China Energy will purchase a 51% stake in KMG International, a unit of Kazakhstan’s state oil and natural gas firm KazMunayGaz. A senior official from CEFC valued KMG International at $500 million-1 billion in a statement to Reuters.

KMG International owns refineries and fuel assets in Europe, including a refinery with output of 100,000 bpd and a fertiliser plant with output of 400,000 tonnes per year in Romania. The Kazakh company also has nearly 1,000 petrol stations in Romania, Spain and France.

CEFC is branching into oil and gas after operations in the Chinese finance sector. Reuters reported that the company planned to invest billions of dollars to expand KMG International’s petrol retail network to more than 3,000 stations.

The agreement was part of a package of deals signed on Monday in Beijing worth $4 billion. The deals are part of Kazakhstan’s 2016 privatisation programme to accumulate foreign investment in Kazakh state firms.