Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd, Scotland's largest hedge-fund manager, yesterday denied a report it is seeking a stake in National Petroleum Co (全國加油站).
The Commercial Times reported on Monday that Martin Currie may buy 25 percent in the gasoline-station operator to gain from the Taipei-based company's links with the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑).
"We do not own this stock," Ross Leckie, a Martin Currie spokesman, said in an e-mail yesterday. "Nor do we have any interest in investing in it."
National Petroleum, operator of 101 filling stations around Taiwan, agreed last month to form a strategic alliance with Formosa Oil (Asia Pacific) Corp, the newspaper said, without citing anyone or giving details.
The two companies would combine their gasoline retail stations and operate them under one brand name, the newspaper said.
Formosa Oil, operator of 164 gasoline stations, is a unit of Formosa Plastics Group.
Taiwan had a total 2,615 gasoline stations as of last month, the Bureau of Energy bureau said on its Web site.
Martin Currie manages US$26.7 billion in equities, according to its Web site.
The Commercial Times report ``is purely market information,'' National Petroleum said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday.
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