China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec, plans to sell as much as 23 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) of six-year convertible bonds to develop infrastructure.

Asia's biggest refiner will use 11.4 billion yuan for its 80 million ton-a-year ethylene plant in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and the rest of the money for pipelines and a processing plant, according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Sinopec agreed on Oct 1 to pay $7.1 billion for a 40 percent stake in Madrid-based Repsol YPF SA's Brazilian unit. Spokesman Huang Wensheng could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Sinopec fell 0.4 percent to close at HK$7.47 (96 cents) in Hong Kong while the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.87 percent.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 10/21/2010 page17)