KEPPEL Corp, world's top offshore oil rig builder, has sold its entire stake in Singapore Petroleum Co (SPC), to PetroChina for $1.47 billion.

This is the largest public takeover in the Asian refining and marketing sector, and comes after years of discussions by Keppel with interested parties to divest its stake in SPC, Singapore's only publicly listed oil refiner.

Keppel said in a statement on Sunday that its unit, Keppel Oil & Gas Services, has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with PetroChina Company's unit PetroChina International (Singapore) to sell its 45.51 per cent stake in SPC.

The sale, which translates to $6.25 per share - a 24 per cent premium over its closing price this weekend at $5.04 - is subject to PetroChina getting the required approvals from the relevant authorities, including that from China by the sale's due date, 24 July.

The sale will result in a net profit of about $660 million for Keppel and would be recognized in the current financial year ending on 31 Dec 2009. KCL intends to use the sale proceeds to finance the expansion of its core businesses.

In a statement made on behalf of Shanghai-listed PetroChina, Deutche Bank, the sole financial advisor for the deal, said yesterday that if and when the acquisition is completed, PetroChina intends to make a mandatory general offer for the remaining shares of SPC.

The deal is the largest public takeover in Singapore since 2001 and one of the largest in Singapore corporate history, said Deutsche Bank.

SPC's market worth as of Friday was $2.6 billion.

The sale is also the first cross-border acquisition of a public company by PetroChina, who is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies and the second largest listed company in the world with a market cap of US$336 billion.