Sunshine Oilsands gunning for $700 million IPO on Hong Kong exchange

The Canadian oilsands have attracted some serious interest from Chinese companies wanting to lock in oil supplies to feed China’s surging economy.

Last year China Petrochemical Corp. purchased a 9% stake in the Syncrude project for US$4.65 billion. In 2009,  PetroChina snapped up a stake in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. for C$1.9 billion.

Now a Canadian oilsands company, Sunshine Oilsands Ltd., is turning to the Hong Kong stock exhange in hopes of raising between $500 million and $700 million through an IPO.  Wall Street Journal (sub required) reports:

The Calgary-based company plans to start gauging investor interest after the Chinese New Year Holiday, which begins Jan. 23, and list its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange in February, people familiar with the situation said.

If successful, the IPO would be the world’s biggest so far this year, according to Dealogic, surpassing the $127 million offering by Chinese health-care company Xizang Haisco Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd. in Shenzhen.

According to its website, Sunshine Oilsands owns 467,969 hectares of oil sands leases, which is about 7% of the total oilsands leases granted in the Athabasca region.