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China says investigating oil options trading of SOEs

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-08 10:46

China's State asset watchdog said Monday in an online statement it is investigating the oil options trading of some State-owned enterprises (SOEs), and it encouraged these firms to use legal measures to minimize potential losses from the transactions.

The statement came after an August 28 report of Caijing Magazine said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) had sent legal letters to six foreign banks saying that SOEs reserved the right to default on some derivatives contracts.

Monday's statement confirmed that some SOEs had previously sent letters to their trading counterparts concerning oil structured options trading.

These State firms said they would reserve their rights of recourse as an internal investigation about the trading is underway, according to the statement.

The commission said this is "a very normal action" for companies to use legal tools to safeguard their rights and interests in commercial activities.

It said the commission is paying close attention and would offer attentive support, and called on the trading counterparts of these firms to give support to their actions.

The commission said it would "support companies to minimize losses and safeguard their rights through negotiations and holdings management".

The SASAC said it also "reserves the rights to take further legal actions, such as to launch legal suits".

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The commission did not specify the names of firms or foreign banks that are involved.

A total of 28 State-owned enterprises that are under the SASAC's supervision have been engaged in financial derivative businesses, with many of them sustaining losses from such transactions, according to the SASAC statistics.

The SASAC said it had repeatedly prohibited SOEs from making speculative derivatives trades and asked the firms to choose trading counterparts carefully to stay away from complex products.