China Natural Gas gets buyout offer; shares jump

* Deal values co at $91.2 mln

* Each shareholder to get $4.25

* Shares up as much as 13 pct (Adds share movement, background)

June 30 (Reuters) - China Natural Gas Inc said a group backed by Themes Investment Partners will take it private, in a deal valuing the distributor of compressed natural gas at $91.2 million, sending its shares up as much as 13 percent.

Each shareholder of the Chinese company will get $4.25 per share in cash, a 23 percent premium over the company's Wednesday's close onNasdaq, China Natural Gas Chief Executive Qinan Ji said in a statement.

Themes Investment Partners is a China-focused private equity firm.

Shares of the company, were up more than 6 percent at $3.68 on Thursday. They had been halted earlier in the session. The stock has lost about 37 percent in the last six months.

China Natural Gas, which appointed a new chief financial officer in December, has a market capitalisation of $74.2 million and long-term debt of $42.6 million, according to Reuters data.

The company, which provides natural gas for industrial, commercial and residential use, claims to own and operates a 120-kilometer-long compressed gas pipeline in Xi'an, China.

(Reporting byVaishnavi Bala in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/chinanaturalgas-idUSL3E7HU34T20110630