Hong Kong-based United Energy Group (UEG) has recently made its very first overseas acquisition; the company has bought BP's Pakistan assets for US$775m in a deal expected to close in early 2011.

BP was represented by its long-term advisor Freshfields, which acted for the company in the US$500m sale of its Greek fuel business and also the US$95m sale of its Indian wind farm business last year. UEG was advised by Reed Smith Richards Butler and a Dewey & LeBoeuf legal team led by partner and co-head of the energy M&A practice Thomas Moore.

UEG is an investment holding company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and owns assets in the Liaohe Oil Field in China. Its biggest shareholder is billionaire Zhang Hongwei, who is also the chairman of Jinzhou Port and Orient Group.

"UEG is the first Chinese company not owned by the state to have made a major acquisition outside China," said Moore. "It will be very interesting to see whether this is the start of a trend where investor-owned Chinese energy companies pursue the same aggressive acquisition strategy around the world as that pursued by state-owned companies."

Other major energy-sector acquisitions this year have included China Zijin's US$500m acquisition of Indophil, CNOOC's US$1.5bn acquisition of LNG Australia, and Sinopec's stake acquisition in South African Sonangol Sinopec for US$2.5bn. ALB