BEIJING - ICBC Financial Leasing Co, China’s biggest leasing company by assets, said on Thursday it has signed an $869 million agreement with BP Shipping to lease 18 oil vessels, the first business deal between the two companies. The 10-year lease agreement is the largest single financing order in BP Shipping’s history, ICBC said in an emailed statement. The announcement was made amid a rash of deals signed during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Britain, including China General Nuclear Corp taking a one-third stake in a planned 18 billion pound ($28 billion) nuclear plant. ICBC Leasing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) , has been expanding its shipping and aviation portfolio. It completed a $1.44 billion deal in 2014 with French oil services company Bourbon for the purchase and charter back of 46 ships used to support offshore oil and gas development. ICBC is also lending Belgian shipowner Exmar $200 million in a deal agreed in June 2015 to finance a liquefied natural gas barge being built in China that will be the first in the world to liquefy and store LNG.