Citing an official of S-Oil Corp, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabian Oil Co or Saudi Aramco will be acquiring a stake worth $2 billion from South Korea's third largest oil refining company, S-Oil Corp. Saudi Aramco is the biggest crude exporter in the world.
The report said an S-Oil Corp official who did not want to be named because of internal policy, will purchase nearly all the stake that Hanjin Energy Co holds in S-Oil. The Maeil Business Newspaper earlier reported the acquisition, citing Nasser Al-Mahasher, the Chief Executive Officer of S-Oil, as saying that Aramco will purchase the whole stake of Hanjin, Bloomberg reported.
Based in Dhahran, Aramco is the biggest shareholder of the South Korean refinery. It currently holds a 35% stake in S-Oil, Bloomberg data showed. Hanjin is the second largest owner holding 28.4%.
Meanwhile, a December 19 report which appeared in Bloomberg said that Korean Air Lines Co, the biggest carrier in South Korea, intended to divest 30 million shares of S-Oil in order to raise KRW 2.2 trillion as part of its move to gather KRW 3.5 trillion or $3.2 billion to pay its debt through asset sales. Korean Air also intends to sell 13 aircrafts for a price tag of KRW 250 billion as well as property and other assets for KRW 1.04 trillion as part of the plan, according to that report. In 2007, Hanjin Energy purchased its S-Oil stake in a deal worth KRW 2.4 trillion. Hanjin Energy is 96.6% owned by Korean Air, Bloomberg reported.
S-Oil Corp is a refiner of crude oil and seller of petroleum and related products. It is mainly engaged in the business of petroleum refining, petrochemical and lubricants and gasoline, bunker oil, kerosene, naphtha, lubricants, benzene, toluene and xylene are its major products, according to information from Bloomberg.
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