Friday, July 30, 2010

HBSC (NYSE:HBC) Takes Lead on BP (NYSE:BP) Vietnam Asset Sale

BP (NYSE:BP) has hired HSBC Holdings Plc (NYSE:HBC) to help them sell their stake in the Nam Con Son natural-gas field in Vietnam. The value of the asset is close to $1.3 billion.

It's no secret BP is attempting to raise capital to fund existing and future liabilities connected to the Gulf oil spill, and they've very publicly let it be known the assets in Vietnam were available for acquisition.

Included in the Vietnam assets are a power station, pipeline and gas field.

BP recently upped the amount of assets they want to divest of to raise capital from about $10 billion to $30 billion. They garnered $7 billion of that recently with the sell of assets to Apache Corp (NYSE:APA), which included Egyptian and North American projects.

South American assets in Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina may be next on the block. Russia has already expressed some interest in the Venezuelan holdings.

Barclays Plc (NYSE:BCS) was recently hired to help sell the assets BP holds in Columbia.

India's giant exploration company, Oil & Natural Gas Corp., may team up with Vietnam Oil & Gas Group to acquire the Nam Con Son field. They already hold a 45 percent stake in the project.

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