ENERGY

CHINA’S LARGEST OIL COMPANY TO BUY PETROKAZAKHSTAN FOR $4.18B

China National Petroleum Corporation, the biggest Chinese oil company, agreed to buy PetroKazakhstan for $4.18 billion after outbidding an Indian producer to secure energy supplies for the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Stockholders of Calgary-based PetroKazakhstan will get $55 a share, 21% more than the latest closing price, the companies said yesterday. The purchase would give China about 12% of the crude output in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country that has more oil than America.

The deal is China’s largest overseas acquisition on record and comes three weeks after Beijing-based Cnooc lost an $18.5 billion bid for American producer Unocal.

It also marks a victory in a chase for reserves with India as the countries turn to fuel imports to sustain economic growth.

– Bloomberg News

FINANCIAL SERVICES

CITIGROUP CONSUMER BANKING HEAD RESIGNS

Citigroup, the world’s largest financial services firm, said consumer banking head Marjorie Magner, who ran the New York-based company’s most profitable unit, is leaving after almost 20 years.

Ms. Magner, 56, will depart October 1 to “pursue her long-term interest in areas outside of financial services, including academia and philanthropy,” Citigroup said in a statement yesterday.

She will be replaced by Ajay Banga, 45, and Steven Freiberg, 48.

The business, which includes 3,415 retail branches, credit cards, and consumer loans, accounted for 58% of Citigroup’s revenue in the first half of this year.

– Bloomberg News

IN BRIEF

Merck & Company sought patent protection for a way to reduce cardiovascular problems in Cox-2 inhibitors, the class of drugs that includes Vioxx, as early as 1998, a year before the popular pain killer was introduced, newly disclosed documents show … Two former Bristol-Myers Squibb executives defrauded investors by improperly accounting for $1.5 billion in revenue in 2000 and 2001, according to the SEC … Natural gas rose as much as 8.1%, the biggest fluctuation of any commodity yesterday, as some forecasters predicted a storm off the Mexican coast that could threaten offshore American production … The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the biggest recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health, may tighten rules for faculty who consult for Wall Street firms on drug research … Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira Advisers agreed to buy SBS Broadcasting SA, Europe’s second-largest TV broadcaster, for about $2.1 billion to tap growth in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe … Marsh & McLennan said CFO Sandra Wijnberg will resign now that the company has settled bid-rigging allegations … Allmerica Financial agreed to sell its variable life insurance and annuity units to Goldman Sachs for about $345 million, exiting a business that triggered net losses in 2001 and 2002 … Emmis Communications, a broadcaster with radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, said it will sell nine of its 16 TV stations for $681 million to cut debt and focus on radio … GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil anti-depressant is linked to a higher risk of suicide attempts in adults, according to a review of 16 studies by researchers in Norway and published in BMC Medicine journal … Google introduced a tool that automatically displays Web content such as news and weather on users’ computer screens, posing a threat to products from Microsoft and Yahoo.

– Bloomberg News and Associated Press