Major blue chip player China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), a company on China's domestic A-share market, may launch a new round of amalgamations as seven listed subsidiaries or sub-subsidiaries announced that they'd suspended trading on Wednesday.

The seven companies are Sinopec Wuhan Petroleum Group Co. Ltd., Sinopec Shandong Taishan Petroleum Co. Ltd., Beijing Huaer Co., Ltd., Yueyang Xingchang Petro-chemical Co. Ltd., Sichuan Meifeng Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Shijiazhuang Petro-Chemical Co. Ltd. and Taian Lurun Co. Ltd.

The seven announced on Wednesday that the suspension of trading will last from Wednesday to Friday as some "important information" is to be disclosed. A Sinopec insider told Xinhua that an announcement would be made about plans to buy back the seven listed subsidiaries. Circulating market value of these seven was 7.6 billion yuan (US$974 million) on Tuesday.

Sinopec announced last February it would buy back four other listed subsidiaries with a cash offer of 14.3 billion yuan. The four are Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical Co., Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co., Sinopec Zhongyuan Petroleum Co. and Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Dynamic Group Co. The four were absorbed into Sinopec in April.

Sinopec holds 79.73 percent shares of Shijiazhuang Petro-Chemical, 38.68 percent of Shandong Taishan Petroleum and 46.25 percent of Wuhan Petroleum. Taian Lurun is a holding company of Shangdong Taishan Petroleum and is indirectly held by Sinopec. The other three are listed subsidiaries of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.) the parent company of Sinopec.

Sinopec will still have two listed subsidiaries, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibre Co. Ltd. Both have seen the plans for a split-share structure reform denied by shareholders last month which resulted in Sinopec's merger being delayed.

The closing price of Sinopec at the domestic A share market dropped by 0.88 percent to 7.93 yuan per share on Wednesday after a sharp rise of nearly 30 percent since October. Sinopec is the first Chinese company to have been listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai. It’s an integrated energy and chemical company.

Sinopec Corp. is the largest oil refiner and the second largest crude oil and gas producer in China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)