Reply #4: PetroChina 1st firm worth $1 trillion

[ozymandius]

SHANGHAI, China - PetroChina became the world's first company worth more than $1 trillion on Monday, surging past Exxon Mobil as the Chinese oil producer's shares nearly tripled in their first day of trading in China.

State-owned PetroChina Co., a unit of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., is the country's biggest oil and gas producer. Its Shanghai initial public offering of 4 billion shares raised $8.94 billion — a record for a mainland bourse.

Adding the value of PetroChina shares traded in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York — and those still owned by the government — the company's total market capitalization ballooned to just over $1 trillion, compared to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s $488 billion.

However, more than 85 percent the shares outstanding — 157.9 billion shares — are held by PetroChina's parent company CNPC and are unlikely to trade in the market any time soon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071105/ap_on_bi_ge/china_petrochina_ipo