Saudi Aramco to buy Hanjin Energy’s S-Oil stake

Saudi Arabian Oil, the world’s largest crude exporter, will buy a $2 billion stake in S-Oil, Korea’s third-largest oil refiner.

The state-owned producer, known as Saudi Aramco, will buy almost all of Hanjin Energy’s stake in S-Oil, according to an S-Oil official who asked not to be identified because of internal policy. The purchase was earlier reported by the Maeil Business Newspaper, which cited S-Oil Chief Executive Officer Nasser Al-Mahasher as saying Aramco will buy Hanjin’s entire stake.

Dhahran-based Aramco, the Korean refiner’s largest shareholder, currently owns 35 percent of S-Oil, followed by Hanjin’s 28.4 percent, according to data.

An email to Aramco outside of normal business hours wasn’t immediately responded to.

Korean Air Lines, Korea’s biggest carrier, said on Dec. 19 that it planned to sell 30 million shares of S-Oil as part of a plan to raise 3.5 trillion won ($3.2 billion) through asset sales to cut debt.

Hanjin Energy bought its stake in S-Oil for 2.4 trillion won in 2007. Korean Air owns 96.6 percent of Hanjin Energy.

S-Oil was up 3.8 percent to close at 70,300 won in Seoul trading.

Bloomberg