Petrobras Offering May Reach $40 Billion, BNDES Says

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, may raise as much as $40 billion in the world’s biggest share sale ever, a government bank and Petrobras investor said.

“It could be $35 billion to $40 billion,” Luciano Coutinho, president of the BNDES state development bank, said today in a Bloomberg television interview. “It will be the largest public offering ever in global markets.”

Petrobras is seeking to sell the shares as part of a plan to acquire 5 billion barrels of oil from the government in deepwater reserves near the Americas’ largest crude discovery since 1976. Brazil’s lower house approved the bill to transfer the oil in exchange for shares yesterday and will send the measure to the Senate, which will have 45 days to pass it, Energy Minister Edison Lobao said today in an interview.

Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras is investing $174.4 billion over five years to boost output and tap deposits off Brazil’s coast in the so-called pre-salt region. The company’s Tupi deposit, discovered in 2007, may hold as much as 8 billion barrels, Petrobras has said.

A Petrobras press official, who asked not to be identified because of company policy, declined to comment on the value of the share sale.

Shares Rise
Petrobras rose 21 centavos, or 0.6 percent, to 35.33 reais at 4:26 p.m. in Sao Paulo trading. The stock earlier touched 35.82 reais, the highest since Jan. 20.

The share offering “is perfectly viable,” Coutinho said in the interview at Bloomberg’s office in London. “Although it’s a very sizeable one, we think there is liquidity and there is appetite in the market for the operation.”

BNDES may increase its stake in Petrobras through the stock sale, he said. Minority investors will have the option to buy shares proportionate to their current stake.

“It depends on how strongly the market will react,” Coutinho said. “We will be prepared to increase our participation if it’s the case, but at least we’ll keep the participation we have now.” The BNDES holds 7.7 percent of outstanding shares now, the Petrobras official said.

If BNDES “wants to increase its stake , it’s because they know it’s an attractive story,” said Eric Conrads, a hedge fund manager at Armada Capital SA, a Mexico City-based partnership with ING Investment Management, which manages $11 billion based in emerging markets including Petrobras shares. BNDES is “participating because in the long term, they know they will be making money.”

Petros-Fundacao Petrobras de Seguridade, the pension fund of Petrobras employees, also plans to buy shares in the offering, Petros President Wagner Pinheiro told reporters in Rio de Janeiro yesterday.