China Gas plans to sell stake in LPG unit -paper

HONG KONG Dec 7 (Reuters) - China Gas Holdings (0384.HK) is in talks to sell a stake in its liquefied petroleum gas subsidiary to PetroChina (601857.SS) (0857.HK) in a deal that will lead to a separate listing of the subsidiary in Shanghai, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

The potential listing of the subsidiary, Shanghai PetroPower, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange could happen any time in the next three years, the newspaper cited China Gas's chief financial officer Eric Leung as saying.

PetroChina, through its subsidiary CNPC Kunlun Natural Gas, was eyeing a tie-up with Shanghai PetroPower in a bid to secure access to a platform for storing, processing and wholesaling and retailing its LPG, while the potential deal would enable China Gas to meet sooner its target of selling 2.2 million tonnes of LPG by 2011, Leung said.

The tie-up would provide a new source of growth to China Gas, the paper added. It gave no further financial details on the tie-up and the listing. (US$1=HK$7.75) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; editing by Jacqueline Wong)