What are three flats in Hong Kong, some securities trading profits and nine letters worth? Judging by the market capitalisation of Hong Kong listed China LNG, $2.5bn. Hong Kong’s property market is doing well, and major shareholder Billy Kan gifted China LNG some stock trading profits. But it is those letters that have excited the market.

China LNG aims to do what it says on the tin. This year, it signed non-binding agreements with Cnooc Yunnan and several government entities across China. Its ambitions already stretch from China’s southwest to the eastern province of Jiangsu. On Wednesday, a deal was struck with authorities in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. If the agreements are consummated, it will have rolled out an LNG chain from supply, storage and distribution to heavy vehicle leasing.

It is hard to put a value on these plans: few of the agreements come with numbers. The capital investment disclosed – which falls short of covering all plans – equals about $650m. Assume half of that will be supplied by China LNG and the rest by its partners. Then assume that, of the $325m supplied by China LNG, half is debt. That leaves it with $163m to find. It has $65m of cash and the rest could come from equity – it can increase the number of shares in issue by a fifth, which would raise $500m.