Decision-making Framework For Cross-border Strategic Acquisitions Of Chinese Oil Companies

This paper took the international strategic M&A of China oil & gas enterprise as thesubject, reviewed the U.S.A. M&A history and oil & gas industry M&A history, andbriefly introduced the related theories, including: M&A theory, strategy theory anddecision-making theory. Based on the above introduction, the author put forward thedecision-making structure of international strategic M&A, analyzed the case of ChinaNational Oil and Gas Corporation Ltd.(CNOOC) trying to merge Unocal Corporation,taking the characters of China oil & gas industry and enterprise into account, to satisfy theneed of China oil & gas enterprise.The decision-making structure composed by the under layer and the above layer. Theunder layer referred to the decision-making operation within the organization, which wasmeant to resolve the problem of how to operate the M&A, including information layer,M&A team and decision body. The above layer referred to M&A process, which wasdivided into five stages according to the different decision-making purpose, includingstrategy decision-making stage, M&A plan stage, initial contract and valuation stage,comprehensive valuation and negotiation stage, and post-M&A appraisement stage.Especially, the author emphasized the making integration plan, and provided somesuggestion. At the same time, this thesis also analyzed the case of CNOOC trying to mergeUnocal Corporation.In the last chapter of this thesis, the author stressed the conclusion and indicated thefurther research direction, which is to introduce the real option into valuation and to studythe post-M&A integration.