【英语国际】中投厚朴投资美国天然气公司

U.S. natural-gas company Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it has sold $900 million in preferred stock to a group of private investors, including Asian sovereign-wealth funds, cashing in on heightened interest in onshore energy following the BP PLC offshore drilling disaster.

The stock sale follows Chesapeake's sale of $1.7 billion worth of preferred stock last month.

In a placement that closed Friday, Chesapeake sold shares to sovereign-wealth funds China Investment Corp. Corp., Korea Investment Corp. and Temasek Holdings, the New York-listed firm said Monday. Other investors were Chinese private-equity fund Hopu Investment Management Co. and a charitable foundation established by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Chesapeake said.

According to a person familiar with the deal, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Abu Dhabi's sovereign-wealth fund, and Japan's Daiwa Securities also invested in the deal.

The person also said Hopu and Temasek, Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund, which had previously bought a combined $600 million in Chesapeake stock in the May round, added to their total, buying roughly a combined $150 million in the latest deal. 'After the offshore drilling problems of BP, investors are starting to look more onshore,' the person said.

The unusual grouping of sovereign-wealth funds from China, Singapore, South Korea and the Middle East in a single deal comes as investor interest in natural-gas assets mounts around the world, particularly in Asia, where governments are looking for cleaner energy to fuel economic growth.

In April, Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. agreed to pay $1.7 billion to Atlas Energy Inc. for a big stake in the Marcellus Shale, a massive natural-gas-rich rock formation underlying Pennsylvania, New York and other eastern U.S. states. And in February, Mitsui & Co. said it would invest about $1.4 billion in the Marcellus, buying nearly a third of the interest held by Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Chesapeake focuses on discovering and developing onshore natural-gas and oil fields and has played a role in pioneering natural-gas production from shale -- a process that involves drilling horizontally through dense rock formations and breaking them apart to release gas trapped inside.

美国天然气公司Chesapeake Energy Corp.说，向包括数只亚洲主权财富基金在内的一组私人投资者出售了9亿美元优先股，在英国石油公司(BP PLC)发生海上石油泄漏事故之后，及时把握住投资者对陆地能源兴趣增大的赚钱机会。

在此之前，该公司在上个月出售了17亿美元的优先股。

这家在纽约上市的公司周一说，在上周五完成的配售交易中，向主权财富基金中投公司、韩国Korea Investment Corp.和淡马锡控股(Temasek Holdings)出售了股权。该公司说，其他投资者还包括中国私募股权基金厚朴投资管理公司(Hopu Investment Management Co.)以及香港大亨李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)创办的一个慈善基金会。

据一位知情人士透露，阿布扎比主权财富基金阿布扎比投资局(Abu Dhabi Investment Council)和日本的大和证券公司(Daiwa Securities)也投资了该交易。

在Chesapeake 5月份的一轮售股中，厚朴和新加坡主权财富基金淡马锡曾共斥资6亿美元买进Chesapeake股权。上述知情人士还说，这次这两只基金增持Chesapeake，在交易中共认购了1.50亿美元股权。此人说，在英国石油公司海上漏油事故之后，投资者开始更多地把目光投向陆地。

此次中国、新加坡、韩国和中东的主权财富基金少有地一起出现在一桩交易中，而全球范围内，投资者对天然气资产的兴趣普遍上涨，特别是亚洲的投资者。亚洲国家政府正在寻找更加洁净的能源来推动经济增长。

4月份，印度企业集团信实工业公司(Reliance Industries Ltd.)同意斥资17亿美元，向天然气生产商Atlas Energy Inc.收购马塞勒斯页岩(Marcellus Shale)的大量股权。马塞勒斯页岩是宾夕法尼亚州、纽约州和美国其他东部州地下面积巨大的富含天然气的岩层。2月份，三井物产(Mitsui & Co.)说，将在马塞勒斯页岩投资约14亿美元，收购总部在休斯顿的石油公司Anadarko Petroleum Corp.所持股权的近三分之一。

Chesapeake主要从事陆地油气田的勘探和开发，参与了从页岩中开采天然气的创举。从页岩中开采天然气涉及到水平钻透厚厚的岩层，并把岩层打碎来释放里面的天然气。