Deal gives Aramco a significant minority stake in China's largest private chemical processing company
March 27, 2023, Shanghai— Grandall Law Firm advised Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group Co. (“Rongsheng Holding”), in its share purchase agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”), one the world's leading integrated energy and chemical companies. The agreement transfers a 10 percent equity interest in Rongsheng Petrochemical to Aramco Overseas Company B.V. in a transaction valued at RMB24.6 billion.
Grandall's Shanghai office also assisted Rongsheng Petrochemical in signing a Strategic Cooperation Agreement and a number of commercial cooperation agreements with Saudi Aramco, aimed at promoting cooperation and the achievement of their respective strategic goals and long-term sustainable development. Saudi Aramco was represented by the international law firm White & Case.
Energy security is crucial to economies, livelihoods and business. Rongsheng Petrochemical operates the 40-million-ton refining and chemical integration project of Zhejiang Petrochemical Co. Ltd., the world's largest single-site refinery and an important producer of polyester, new energy materials, engineering plastics, and high-value-added polyolefins in China and Asia. The refinery has the world's largest production capacity for PTA, PX, and other chemicals. It ranks among the world's top producers of several products— including polyethylene, polypropylene, PET, EVA, and ABS— and was ranked the 8th in the “Chemicals 25 2022” by Brand Finance, a well-known UK brand evaluation agency.
Saudi Aramco is one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemical companies, with operations all over the world. Saudi Aramco needs a stable sales market for crude oil products while accelerating its global presence in the downstream chemicals sector. It is investing in integrated refining and chemicals projects in emerging markets, including China, to build globally leading integrated energy and chemical companies, and to enhance the ultimate added value and overall profit space of its crude oil products.
Rongsheng Petrochemical and Saudi Aramco are both upstream and downstream of each other. Strategic cooperation between the two parties can achieve resource sharing, complementary advantages and win-win cooperation. The signing of this Strategic Cooperation Agreement is conducive to leveraging their respective resource endowments to achieve strategic goals and long-term sustainable development.
Grandall Shanghai provided the full range of premium legal services throughout the project, including but not limited to legal and commercial communication and negotiation, drafting, review and revision of transaction documents in Chinese and English. Grandall's professional and efficient legal services drew unanimous recognition from the client and relevant parties.
The project was coordinated by Managing Partner LI Qiang, with full cooperation of Kevin QIAN, General Counsel of Grandall International Development and Foreign Affairs, and Partners Lyon DONG, Molly QIN and Jacqueline CAI helping facilitate the smooth completion of the transaction. Partner Peng LI also rendered his support in antitrust approval and other closing conditions for the transaction. In addition, lawyers Xinyi CAO and Jingyi HU, and paralegals Tiffany SHEN, Fucheng YANG and Yunzhe PAN assisted in the project.