Unlike major western groups, which rely on what they have already achieved, the Chinese, Indian and South African companies are surging forward in external growth operations. Petrochina of China, a company leading the way in market capitalisation ($351 billion on 25 March 2009 ahead of American ExxonMobil, with $336 billion, and Chinese ICBC, $208 billion), has decided to take over control of Singapore Petroleum Corp. With this deal, the Singaporean group has a value of $2.2 billion. The...