PETRONAS, the Malaysian state energy company, has bought a 4 per cent shareholding in Centrica, the utility that owns the British Gas brand.

The share stake, valued yesterday at £338 million, emerged after a month during which bid rumours have linked Centrica with potential predators, including Shell, Norsk Hydro, Gaz de France and Gazprom, the Russian gas company.

Petronas said yesterday that it had no intention to buy more shares in the utility. Announcing its purchase, the Malaysian company said: “Petronas views this shareholding as a long-term supportive investment in the UK’s leading energy retailing company.”

News of the Malaysian purchase helped to reverse a sharp fall in Centrica shares as dealers reacted to what appeared to be a profits warning by the energy retailer. At one point Centrica stock gained 4 per cent before ending down 4p at 260p.

The market is not expecting an imminent bid from the Malaysian company, which is known in the oil industry as the “Islamic major”. However, Petronas has made plain its intention to target the British market, last year acquiring a third interest in Dragon LNG, the liquefied natural gas terminal at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, and this year the purchase of a fifth of Star Energy, a firm with gas storage facilities in Britain.

The Malaysian company, which had earnings of $9.4 billion last year, is anxious to extend its reach beyond Asia and into the North Atlantic basin, where gas demand is growing, both in Britain and the United States where Centrica has customers.

Speaking to The Times last year after the investment in Dragon LNG, Tan Sri Hassan Marican, the Petronas chief executive, said: “It (the LNG business) has reached a plateau in our traditional areas in Asia. The opportunity has come up to be a player in the Atlantic Basin and an opportunity to invest in Britain.”

Centrica and Petronas are already business partners, having in August last year concluded Britain’s largest LNG supply agreement — a £4 billion deal to supply 45 billion cubic metres of gas over 15 years.

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Centrica would not comment on the share purchase yesterday, but it said that it welcomed the development of its commercial relationship. “We are searching for gas; wherever there is gas, we will do business,” Michael Young, Centrica’s corporate affairs director, said.

A rapprochement between Centrica and Petronas could signal that the tide had turned in the gas market, a reversal of the previous trend of separating production and distribution. Philip Lambert, of Lambert Energy, which advised the Malaysian company on its share purchase, said: “In a gas market where producer and marketer are strangely disconnected, there may be ways to forge links between the two.”

The two companies complement each other, the Malaysian firm having access to gas, including supplies in Egypt, where Petronas acquired a third share in Egyptian LNG. Centrica, however, is short of fuel and announced last year that it had earmarked £2 billion to acquire upstream reserves.

The British utility has flirted with mergers before. Late last year, Centrica entered into talks with Norsk Hydro, only to be rebuffed when the Norwegian Government indicated its unwillingness to reduce its interest in the company.

Widely respected as the most efficient of the national oil companies, Petronas is highly ambitious and has amassed a large share of the liquefied natural gas market, supplying a fifth of both Japan and South Korea’s gas needs and 40 per cent of the market in Taiwan.

MALAYSIAN FIRM’S REACH

• Net profits: $9.4 billion

• Total assets: $63 billion

• Oil and gas production: 1.6 million barrels per day

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