Mensajepor ALF » Jue May 16, 2013 11:05 am
Mas de lo mismo, pero salio ayer a la noche esto. Lo copio porque hay que registrarse para leerlo...
Petrobras: saying Tchau to Argentina?
May 15, 2013 8:12pm by David Gacs
By David Gacs and Jude Webber
If rumours are true, it looks like Petrobras is about to get another top-up for its coffers.
Just two days after the Brazilian national oil company raised $11bn in the biggest emerging markets bond offering ever, market chatter is that Petrobras is poised to sell a stake in Petrobras Argentina, its Argentine subsidiary, for a princely sum of $900m.
The buyer everyone is talking about is Argentine energy company Oil Combustibles, owned by businessman Cristóbal López’s Grupo Indalo.
Petrobras directly owns 67.2 per cent of Petrobras Argentina, with the remainder listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange and traded on the NYSE via ADRs.
The stake that is allegedly being sold is 51 per cent of Petrobras’s private holding, meaning the prospective new owner would end up with 34.27 per cent of Petrobras Argentina.
The sale reportedly includes the handover of the Ricardo Eliçabe refinery in Bahía Blanca as well as 300 service stations, which will be rebranded to fly under the Oil Combustibles banner, according to the local press.
Gossip about the transaction has been doing the rounds in the Argentine press, though no one involved is saying much.
Petrobras head Maria das Gracas Foster told Brazilian senators on Tuesday that while there is a proposal on the table, no decision has been made.
Petrobras is selling oil fields, refineries and other assets in Argentina, Nigeria, Japan and the United States as part of an asset-disposal plan to raise $14.5bn to help finance a $237bn, five-year capital expenditure programme aimed at developing Brazil’s vast pre-salt oil fields.
The sale would still leave Petrobras with plenty of assets in Argentina. They include Lubrax, Petrobras’ local oil and lubricant brand, oil and gas concessions in four provinces, two petrochemical plants and natural gas and hydro-powered electricity utilities.
This wouldn’t be the first time Cristóbal López has snapped up Petrobras assets. In 2011 he paid $110m for its refinery at San Lorenzo and 365 service stations. Through Grupo Indalo, López owns significant stakes in Argentine food, media and investment companies. He was recenty green-lighted to build a casino in Miami.
López is a close friend of the Kirchners, so there’s always the chance his part in the deal has already been given the once over and a seal of approval from the Casa Rosada.