Wed Sep 1, 2010 8:33pm EDT
* Price above Petrobras', analysts' estimates * Valuation of oil is key step for capitalization * Private shareholders worry about dilution
(Recasts, adds details, byline) By Raymond Colitt BRASILIA, Sept 1 (Reuters) -
Brazil's government will charge state oil company Petrobras $8.51 per barrel for crude
reserves to be used in a $43 billion oil-for-shares swap, a
price seen as high that could hit interest in a related share
offer. The government will trade 5 billion barrels of oil for
company shares, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on
Wednesday, in an operation linked to a stock issue for private
shareholders that could raise as much as $25 billion more in
cash. The price is considerably higher than the $5 to $6 per
barrel markets see as fair, possibly leaving Petrobras
(PETR4.SA) raising less cash than it had hoped as it advances
plans to tap vast but hard-to-reach oil fields deep below the
ocean floor. "It's the biggest transaction of its kind," Mantega told
reporters in the capital Brasilia, adding terms and conditions
of the operation will be announced on Sept. 3.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN011 ... 902?rpc=44