TRASH-TO-POWER: A worker at a garbage incineration power plant in Wanzhou District, Chongqing City, on November 13. It is the first of its kind in the Three Gorges reservoir area and is expected to complete by June 2014 (LI JIAN)

Too Big to Fail

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has qualified for an annual list of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), the bank said via an online statement on November 12.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international organization monitoring and coordinating the world's financial systems, published its annual update of the list of G-SIBs on November 11. ICBC was added to the list of banking groups identified as G-SIBs in 2012, increasing the overall number from 28 to 29.

According to ICBC's half-year report, its capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.11 percent by the end of June, higher than the lowest standard level of 10.5 percent set by the FSB.

The statement attributed the achievement to ICBC's strong performance in business factors and expanding overseas markets.

In 2012, the Chinese banking giant topped the world's financial industry in total assets, deposits, loans, tiers on capital, market value and profit.

Meanwhile, ICBC's overseas assets hit $182.2 billion by the end of June, while its cross-border yuan settlement exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan ($244.46 billion).

Energy Purchase

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will pay $2.6 billion for oil and gas assets in Peru, according to a press release from its listed unit PetroChina on November 13.

CNPC, the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, will buy the entire shares of Petrobras Energia Peru S.A., which owns three oil and gas blocks in Peru. The three blocks have an output of around 800,000 tons of oil equivalent a year.

PetroChina said Peru is one of the countries in Latin America that has a good investment environment. It expects good economic returns from the acquisition.

The project will help grow CNPC's oil and gas portfolio in the region and promote the sustainable development of its overseas business, PetroChina said.