Petrobras Raises $70 Billion in World’s Largest Share Sale
By Peter Millard – Sep 24, 2010 1:28 PM GMT-0300
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) — Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the state-controlled oil company, raised 120.4 billion reais ($70 billion) from the Brazilian government and other investors in the world’s largest share sale as it seeks cash to develop offshore fields. Bloomberg’s Cecilia Tornaghi reports.(Source: Bloomberg)
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, raised as much as $70 billion in the world’s largest share sale as investors bet on its plans to double output within a decade by tapping offshore fields.
Petrobras, based in Rio de Janeiro, sold 2.4 billion common shares for 29.65 reais each and priced 1.87 billion preferred stock at 26.30 reais apiece. The company sold 115 billion reais ($67 billion) of shares and banks have an option to buy another 5 billion reais, according to a statement sent late yesterday.
Petrobras is spending about $224 billion over the next five years to boost production to 5.38 million barrels a day by tapping deposits trapped under a layer of salt beneath the ocean floor. The share sale was priced at a 2 percent discount to yesterday’s close, suggesting investors are backing Petrobras’s plans to overtake industry rivals such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
“Many of the other global majors are being challenged because their reserves are being depleted,” said Ron Holt, chief executive officer of Hansberger Global Investors Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which manages $8 billion. “If you look at the potential capital expenditures that the company has planned for the next several years, that is a very significant potential exploration project for them.”
The company is tapping demand for emerging-market assets to develop deposits including Tupi, the largest discovery in the Americas in three decades. The field, and the nearby Libra deposit in the so-called presalt region off the Brazilian coast, may each contain as many as 8 billion barrels of oil.
‘Growth Profile’
“In Petrobras, you have an obvious growth profile,” said Robbert van Batenburg, head of equities research at Louis Capital Markets in New York. “They face growing pains while other guys struggle to replace reserves,” he said.
Petrobras has slumped 27 percent this year on concern the sale will cut earnings and boost state interference.
The company’s preferred shares fell 13 centavos, or 0.5 percent, to 26.67 reais in Sao Paulo trading at 12:13 p.m. New York time, while the common stock dropped 0.7 percent to 30.03 reais.
As part of the share sale, Petrobras issued about $42.5 billion of stock to Brazil’s government in exchange for the rights to develop 5 billion barrels of oil reserves. The sale includes an over-allotment option by underwriters to sell 188 million shares, or about $3 billion, over the next 30 days.
The sale may signal President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is paving the way for greater control over the Brazilian economy before the likely election of his chosen successor Dilma Rousseff next month.
‘Biggest Capitalization’
“It wasn’t in Frankfurt, it wasn’t in New York, it was in our Sao Paulo exchange that we carried out the biggest capitalization in the history of capitalism,” Lula said at an event in Sao Paulo today.
Production at Shell, based in The Hague, was about 3.15 million barrels a day in 2009, compared with 3.25 million a year earlier, according to its annual report. Exxon Mobil Corp. produced about 3.93 million barrels in 2009, from 3.92 million a year earlier.
Prior to the sale, Petrobras was valued at 8.03 times its estimated earnings for this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 10.6 times for Beijing-based PetroChina Co., Asia’s biggest company by market value, and 10.8 times Irving, Texas-based Exxon, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, the data showed.
A total of 18 equity offerings were completed this year by Brazilian companies before Petrobras’ sale, raising $12.4 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The shares have gained 20 percent on average.
Increased Control
The government increased its stake in the company to 48 percent from 40 percent after the share sale, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said at an event in Sao Paulo today. That includes minority stakes held by state-owned banks.
Before the sale, the government controlled the company through 55.6 percent of voting shares. Petrobras didn’t disclose the government’s voting stake after the offering.
Lula is tightening the state’s grip on the domestic oil industry after Tupi was discovered in 2007, the largest find in the Western Hemisphere since Mexico’s Cantarell in 1976. He says Brazil is relying on the country’s oil wealth to help raise the nation’s 192 million residents out of poverty.
Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli plans to double output to 5.38 million barrels a day by 2020, from 2.7 million barrels in 2010.
China Sale
The Petrobras sale amounted to about 18 percent of the value of all equity offerings completed in 2010 and exceeded by three times the record initial public offering of $22.1 billion by Agricultural Bank of China in July, according to Bloomberg data.
About $379 billion has been raised by companies selling shares this year, the same pace as a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A total of 167 equity offerings valued at $29.5 billion have been postponed or withdrawn around the world this year, the most since at least 1998, the data show.
Brazilian companies have struggled to raise as much as they sought in initial public offerings this year amid speculation higher interest rates and swelling budget deficits in Europe would slow the global economic recovery. Renova Energia SA, a Brazilian developer of wind and hydroelectric power, raised 150 million reais, a fifth of what it had initially planned.
OSX Brasil SA, billionaire Eike Batista’s shipbuilding company, raised 2.45 billion reais in March in Brazil’s biggest IPO this year. That was about 7.5 billion reais less than the company originally sought.
Of the 5 billion barrels Petrobras will get from the government, about 3.1 billion barrels will come from the Franco field, while the Iara and Florim fields will account for another 1.07 billion. Petrobras will also receive the rights to oil at Tupi Northeast and South, as well as the Guara East fields.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net
Gostar disso:
Seja o primeiro a gostar disso post.