China Aviation Oil
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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| SGX: G92 | |
| Headquarters | 8 Temasek Boulevard #31-02
Suntec Tower Three Singapore 038988 |
| Parent | China National Aviation Fuel |
China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd ("CAO") is the largest purchaser of jet fuel in the Asia Pacific region and supplies jet fuel to the civil aviation industry of the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). CAO supplies to the three key international airport in the PRC, i.e. Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, and accounts for more than 90% of PRC's jet fuel imports. CAO also engages in international trading of jet fuel and other oil products such as fuel oil and gas oil.[1] CAO owns investments in strategic oil-related businesses, which include Shanghai Pudong International Airport Aviation Fuel Supply Company Ltd[2] and China National Aviation Fuel TSN-PEK Pipeline Transportation Corporation Ltd.
The company was incorporated on 26 May 1993, and has been listed on the Singapore Exchange since December 2001.
2004 Scandal
CAO began trading oil-related derivatives to hedge its purchases of jet fuel against the volatility of the price of oil. However, CAO had not updated its risk management rules to reflect the more aggressive trading strategy, and its control was loose around its traders. This led to traders even exceeding the current limitations set out by CAO.[3] According to CAO, “As the prices of crude oil were at an all time high at above $55 per barrel, the company faced significant margin calls on its open positions and did not have the resources to satisfy the margin calls”. It resulted in US$550 million dollars loss, causing the largest financial scandal to rock Singapore since he collapse of Barings Bank in 1995.[4]
SGX appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor to investigate "the circumstances leading to the losses at CAO, the internal controls, risk management and governance practices of CAO, and to report its findings to the Exchange."[5]
CAO then turned to its parent company China Aviation Oil Holding (CAOH) which provided an emergency loan of $100 million, however, it was insufficient which led to a proper restructuring.[6] BP, Temasek Holdings and CAOH agreed to invest 130 million, staving off bankruptcy, preventing the company from being liquidated.[7] Chen Jiulin, CEO of CAO, and four other executives of CAO was arrested as a result of the scandal. Chen Jiulin plead guilty to "insider trading, failure to disclose losses, making false financial statements and conspiring to deceive Deutsche Bank into handling the sale of a stake in the company in 2004".
2020 Allegations of Fraud
Swiss Bank Banque de Commerce et de Placements SA (BCP) sued China Aviation Oil over a $19 million dollar fraudulent deal. BCP gave ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd a credit letter to purchase 260,000 barrels of oil from CAO.[8] However, Zenrock planned to sell the barrels to PetroChina International (East China) Co. Ltd. instead. BCP had paid CAO $19 million dollars after the company showed documentation indicating that the cargo had been loaded onto an oil tanker in Malacca in Malaysia where Zenrock was responsible for its delivery. BCP claims that CAO has made false representations, thus also claiming that CAO “had acted in breach of the letter of credit”. BCP is now claiming damages with interest on top of the original amount it had paid for the cargo.
CAO denies all allegations and claims that the cargo was in fact shipped from Malacca on 27 January 2020 abroad the Vietnam-flagged tanker, Petrolimex 18. It also had received payment from the letter of credit's bank, which is not BCP. [9]
- ^ Ho, Jovi (3 February 2022). "RHB looks past China Aviation Oil's profit warning, optimistic on gradual traffic recovery". The Edge Singapore.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Lam, Fiona (30 September 2020). "Broker's take: RHB upgrades China Aviation Oil to 'buy' as air traffic improves". www.businesstimes.com.sg.
- ^ "China oil firm runs up huge loss". www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ "CAO holds Goldman Sachs to account". www.chinadaily.com.cn.
- ^ "China Aviation Oil (Singapore)". www.mas.gov.sg.
- ^ "China oil firm runs up huge loss". www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ "Former chief of CAO pleads guilty in scandal". The New York Times. 15 March 2006. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ Tan, Florence (19 August 2020). "Swiss bank BCP alleges fraud in oil deal between ZenRock and China Aviation". Reuters.
- ^ Basquill, John (26 August 2020). "Legal questions emerge as Singapore oil trader denies BCP fraud allegations". Global Trade Review (GTR).
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